


If Only I Had The Power

by MaluAlu



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:18:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 26
Words: 46,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22150150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaluAlu/pseuds/MaluAlu
Summary: “Hilde?”“Hm?”“What’re you thinking?”“I'm thinking we discover the truth.”*****Hilde Jorgensen often finds herself living in the shadow of her older brother, Snotlout. Sure, she's a solid fighter and an overall MUCH nicer person than Snotlout, but she soon learns that it's going to take a lot more than that if she ever wants to be the strong Viking that she aspires to be. But, when her friend Hiccup stumbles across a Night Fury, the most dangerous and rarest dragon species out there, it's up to her to figure out what's right and wrong and whether or not she can make these difficult choices. The world isn't all black and white, so who's to say if there's even a right or wrong choice, to begin with?
Relationships: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 26





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> ⭒Copyright Ⓒ 2010, How to Train Your Dragon is a trademark of DreamWorks Animation, L.L.C. All rights belong to their rightful owners~

My black leather skirt was beginning to feel too snug around my waist. No matter how many times I shifted and tugged at it, my stomach still felt like it was ready to burst in a matter of seconds. I threw my hands up in frustration and let out a sigh.

At least I can still breathe in it….

Thumping and hollering could be heard from outside my room. I take a peek outside my small window over my bed. Thick, gray smoke appeared to be clogging up the entire atmosphere itself while the fire crackled in the distance. But, most importantly, I can already see the wings of dragons sweeping and swooshing down onto the grounds of our village, leaving a trail of chaos and destruction behind. Vikings, clattered in their rightful armors, scurry around in different directions, doing their best to defend themselves against the dragons.

All in all, it was just another ordinary day at Berk.

“Hey, butthead!” My older brother’s voice echoes down the hall and, without even bothering to knock first, opens the door to my bedroom. “Dad’s gonna toss you to the dragons unless you get out here and help us put out this fire!

Yeah, he’s a bit of jerk, in case you couldn’t figure it out.

I swiftly fasten on my spikey, fur skirt over my black leather skirt and then slip on my sleeveless, furry, black, cropped jacket over my brown short-sleeved shirt. I check my leather forearm gauntlets and shoulder pads to make sure they were secure and then finally slip on my black fur boots over my dark brown leggings.

Snotlout watches me from my doorway as I fumble around for my stuff. He scowls in annoyance. “You almost done, princess?”

I grab a small pouch from off my bed and tie it around my belt as I shove past him. “I wish I could toss you to the dragons.”

~o~o~o~o~o

Dawn was nearly peeking over the horizon, but the inky sky was still vivid. The cold, breezy, night air bit at the tip of my nose as I jog over towards one of my friends, Fishlegs, who was busy filling his bucket up with water. Snotlout followed not too far behind me.

“Morning, Fishlegs,” I greet.

Fishlegs peers up at me, his blonde hair sweeping across his forehead. “Good Morning, Hilde.”

“Hey, Fishlegs! Hilde! Snotlout!”

I glance over and saw the twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, making their way over to us.

I nod in response. “Hey, guys! What took you so long?”

“Don’t ask me!” Ruffnut says in annoyance. “I’m not the one that took so long to get out of bed!”

“Some people need their beauty sleep,” Tuffnut argues. “I wouldn’t expect someone like you to know.”

“Oh, I’ll show you beauty sleep—”

Fishlegs, sensing the argument that was about to erupt between the fraternal twins, speaks up. “H-hey, have any of you seen Astrid by any chance?”

“Right here,” Astrid abruptly appears from behind us and begins filling up her water bucket. She always remained so concentrated and focused during the mayhem.

“Alright, enough chit-chat,” Snotlout interjects. “Here,” he then shoves a bucket filled with water in my arms. “Don’t be dumb.”

I give him a confused look. “Thanks….I guess.”

Snotlout rolls his eyes at me. We then cross over towards the burning house and, one by one, we all walk over and pour our water over the fire. Astrid was the last to go and nearly the second after she throws her water at the fire, a Gronckle from up above fires at the ruckus, causing a fiery explosion to happen right behind her. Nonetheless, she walks so cooly and casually with her beautiful blonde hair gracefully swinging out from behind her. You would never mistake her as the “damsel in distress”.

I would be lying if I said that I didn’t slightly envy her tough personality. I wouldn’t go as far as to call myself weak or prissy, but Astrid was the definition of what made a Viking...well, a Viking. I, on the other hand, had a hard time feeling respected by some of my peers, let alone feeling respected by Berk itself.

Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Fishlegs, Snotlout, and I all walk up beside Astrid in front of the explosion. My older brother was loving the attention, but I still felt myself unintentionally peering behind me to make sure that I wouldn’t get caught in the fire. Some Viking I am, right?

Everyone else hurries past the blacksmith shop, but my eyes catch sight of a scrawny, brown-haired kid that I instantly recognized as Hiccup. He locks eyes with me. Although he didn’t say anything to me, his eyes spoke volumes. I knew what he wanted more than anything was to be out here in action, not stuck behind as someone’s apprentice in a blacksmith shop. I really shouldn’t self-pity myself when Hiccup had it off worse than me. My heart truly softened for him, but there wasn’t anything I could say or do that would be able to fix anything. I hated feeling so helpless, I couldn’t even help myself, let alone Hiccup. It also doesn’t help that my arrogant older brother is Hiccup’s biggest bully at Berk. If only I had the power to help Hiccup. If only I had the power to stand up for myself.

If only.

But, the only thing I could do was offer Hiccup my kind, soft eyes at him and wave. Hiccup cracks a small smile and waves back.

“Hey, butthead!” I heard the all-too-familiar sound of Snotlout’s voice in the distance. “Quit being a slowpoke and make yourself useful!”

My mind refocuses itself on the danger surrounding me and springs my body back into action.

It was time to fight.


	2. Chapter 2

I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to the loud, roaring sound dragons made. More specifically, I won’t get used to them doing it right in my eardrum. But, nobody else seemed to mind so I kept moving, staying out of other people’s way, and defending myself when I had to. I managed to snag my Flashcut sword that was stashed away in the armory, so I felt more than capable to defend myself.

“NIGHT FURY! GET DOWN!”

A high-pitched whistle is heard from the sky. I instantly dart my eyes around, scanning for cover, until I see Astrid scrambling behind a long, wooden post. I leap after her, clutching my sword and keeping it close to me. As soon as I’m sheltered, I see a large purple explosion rippling through the sky. The Night Fury moves so fast that it almost blurs my vision all together

“What you need is a shield.” Astrid suddenly comments.

I blink at her a couple of times before I respond. “Eh?”

“A shield,” Astrid repeats. She spots one laying on the ground near us and hands it over to me. “That way you don’t have to go looking for cover every single time the situation calls for it.”

I grip the handle of my shield, bouncing it up and down to get a feel for it. “O-oh, um, thanks.”

Astrid pauses. “Y’know, they ask you this on your first day of training. Be prepared, okay?”

“Okay.”

Another explosion booms throughout the village. Astrid holds up her battle ax and bustles away without another word. I stick my sword into my belt loop and keep the shield positioned up, ready to cover myself when necessary. 

“Hiccup, where are you going?!”

“Come back here!”

The random Vikingvoices catch my attention, so I look up and see the onlyHiccup, pushing a cart with what seemed to be an automated catapult on it.

“Yeah, I know!” Hiccup hollers out in response. “Be right back!”

Oh Thor, what are you up to?

I stealthy follow after him. From the looks of it, he was sneaking off to an isolated area in front of Berk, perching himself on top of a small, empty hill. I lag back into the shadows, one hand on my sword, and the other on my shield. Hiccup pulls out his boala,and begins setting up in almost one swift, elegant movement.

If only he was as good of a fighter as he was an apprentice….

“Come on,” I hear Hiccup saying to himself. “Gimme something to shoot at, gimme something to shoot at….”

The air is slick with silence. My stomach juts in anticipation….even though I wasn’t entirely sure what I was waiting for. I roll my head up towards the smear of stars. A few more moments pass until, suddenly, the same purple explosion pierces into the night sky, revealing a shadowy figure rushing past my vision. Hiccup must’ve seen what I saw too because he fires his machinery, the kickback knocking him down on his bum. I can see something whirling its way towards the shadowy figure and then I hear a loud cry echo throughout the night.

A Night Fury….?

The creature lets out another cry and then begins plummeting down to the ground.

Did—did he just...did THE Hiccup Horrendous just hit his first dragon? AND A NIGHT FURY OF ALL THINGS?! 

“Oh, I hit it?” Hiccup questions himself before the realization finally hits him. “Yes! I HIT IT! Did anybody see that?”

“Yes!” I emerge from my hiding spot, smiling widely. “Hiccup was that—”

“Hilde?” Hiccup looks shocked, but happy nonetheless. “You were here the whole time? You followed me? I mean, I don’t care, but you saw what I did too, right? I mean, I just took down this—”

“Hiccup, watch out!” My face breaks out into shock. A Monstrous Nightmare had appeared from behind him.

Hiccup doesn’t fully turn around until he hears the sound of the dragon crushing his bola into smithereens. He gulps. “Oh, and how could I forget about you too?”

“Run, Hiccup!”

We both turn around and break out into full-speed sprint away from it. It lets out a shrill cry and chases after us, but the safest thing we could do was not egg it on. We both continue to keep running from it as it spits fire after us. I can feel the tips of its flame reaching out to us, coating my neck in sweat. My curly, dark brown hair sticks my face as Hiccup dives behind a torch pole, but there wasn’t enough room for the both of us, so I now had to turn around and face it head-on. Plus, I was the one with the shield so it only made sense.

The Monstrous Nightmare looks at me dead in the eye and opens up its mouth. I hold my shield up in anticipation and feel the hot flames gathering around the edge of my shield, but I keep it held up in the air. My arms are shaking by the time it’s done, but now my shield was completely burned to the crisp, so I had to toss it aside. I take out my sword and whack it against the side of its head a few times. I was able to daze it for a minute until I reach over and kick one of its legs, causing the dragon to stumble to the ground. I look over and shoot a hopeful look at Hiccup, who was still watching from behind the pole.

“Hilde, watch out!”

I suddenly feel the wind being knocked out of me. I'm flying away and smashing straight into the ground, my sword being knocked out of my hand in the process. I land on my wrist and hiss in sharp pain. I see my sword land a few feet away from me, but before I can even think about crawling towards it, the Monstrous Nightmare had pounced right on top of me, its sharp teeth glistening right in my face. I begin to feel nauseous, my stomach churning in the pit of my stomach. This was how I was going to die. 

“Hilde!”

I couldn’t recognize whose voice it was but, the next thing I knew, Stoick appears and he punches the beast right in the face. The dragon staggers off of me as Stoick defend himself from it. The dragon shoots out more flames, but Stoick ducks, and it instead hits the torch pole that Hiccup was hiding behind.

I sit myself up just as Hiccup rushes to my side, keeping one hand on my back as he helps me up from the ground. “Hilde, look at me, are you okay?” His green eyes were overflowing with worry. “Oh Thor, I am so, so, so sorry! I-I can’t believe I hid like that! I wasn’t even thinking!"

“Hiccup, I’m fine,” I reassure him. “I knew what I was doing...up until it had me pinned to the ground.”

Hiccup lightly chuckles just as the dragon opened its mouth up again at Stoick, except this time, it coughs up only a few drops of flame as it pathetically falls to the ground.

Stoick begins to take calculated steps towards it. “You’re all out.”

After a couple of quick punches and kicks to the Monstrous Nightmare, it is defeated, and it flies away into the distance. We all hear a cracking sound and, when Hiccup and I peer our heads over, we see the torch pole toppling down, running straight into the village, and leaving ruins in its wake. The torch then rolls into a bunch of netted Nadders, freeing them, allowing them to fly away with most of Berk’s food and supplies.

Hiccup and I helplessly watch from afar. He shoots Stoick an apologetic look. “Sorry....Dad.”

Another crashing sound could be heard from the distance, no doubt caused by the rolling, flamed torch pole.

“Okay, but I hit a Night Fury.” Hiccup begins to speak, but Stoick grabs him by his shirt and drags him away.

I get up and follow after them, clutching onto my sore wrist.

“It’s not like the last few times, Dad! I mean, I hit it! Hilde saw it too, while the rest of you guys were busy! I had a very clear short and it went down, just off Raven Point. Let’s get a search party out there, before it—”

“STOP!” Stoick bellowed, facing his son. “Just stop...every time you step outside, disaster follows. And don’t even try dragging Hilde into this when this is your mess, Hiccup!”

“Chief, he’s not dragging me into anything,” I speak up. “I saw him take down a Night Fury and I swear—”

“Please, Hilde,” Stoick rests his hands on my shoulder pads. “I saw you save my son’s life back there and I am sincerely grateful. But, right now, don’t turn this into a bigger production than it needs to be. This isn’t your fault.”

“But, sir, I—”

“Quiet, Hilde!”

“D-don’t yell at her, Dad!” Hiccup says. “She’s telling the truth! Why can’t you ever think that maybe, just maybe, I did something right? Why is that so hard to believe?”

“Can’t you see that I have bigger problems?” Stoick snaps. “Winter’s almost here and I have an entire village to feed!”

It’s quiet for a few seconds before Hiccup mutters, “Between you and me, the village could do with a little less feeding, don’t ya think?”

I snicker, but then one of the Vikings shoot me a dirty look, so I pipe down.

“This isn’t a joke, you two! Hiccup, why can’t you just follow simple orders?”

“I can’t stop myself,” Hiccup explains. “I see a dragon and I have to just...kill it, you know? It’s who I am, Dad.”

Stoick shakes his head. “You are many things, Hiccup. But a dragon killer is not one of them. Get back to the house,” he looks over at Gobber. “Make sure he gets there. I have this mess to clean up.”

Gobber nods and begins escorting Hiccup back to his house. I follow after them, figuring that I could at least get a chance to talk with Hiccup about everything that went down, especially with the Night Fury that he caught. However, on the way there, we passed by the teen Vikings, and I could already see Snotlout shaking his head at me.

“Quite the performance.” Tuffnut snarks at Hiccup.

Snotlout marches out and halts us in our path, glaring at Hiccup. “You must think you’re really tough, getting my little sister mixed up in this.”

“Don’t act like you suddenly care,” I jump to Hiccup’s defense. “I can take care of myself.”

“Oh?” Snotlout scoffs and grabs my bruised wrist, revealing its swollen purple color. I try to stop myself from wincing but I do it anyway. “Do you call this taking care of yourself? I swear Dad doesn’t pay me enough to babysit some mindless eleven-year-old.”

“Dad isn't paying you at all,” I correct him. “Also, I’m fourteen, not that that has anything to do with...anything.”

“Shut up,” he narrows his eyes. “You still don’t need some loser like Hiccup getting you in some trouble.”

“Snotlout…”

“Stop,” he raises a hand to shush me. “Just go home, Hilde. I’m sure you’re already in enough trouble as it is.”

“‘Ay,” Gobber speaks up. “But you might want to get that wrist checked out, Hilde. We don’t need that thing rendering useless all of a sudden.”

Snotlout grumbles. “Fine. I’ll take you to Gothi. But, then we’re going straight home afterward.”

“I-I don't think I need an escort—”

“Right,” my older brother ignores me and roughly grabs me by my good hand. “Cause that worked out so well last time.”


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks to my leather gauntlets, my wrist wasn’t broken. Gothi said (or wrote) that it was nothing more than a sprain, but I had to keep it wrapped up in this thick, dull-colored cloth, ice it every night, and keep it elevated. Gothi made Snotlout promise that he would “keep a close eye on me” to make sure that I wouldn’t get into any more “ruckus.” He unwillingly muttered a “kay” and then proceeded to wound the cloth tightly around my wrist. A bit too tightly than necessary, in my humble opinion.

The walk back to our home wasn’t too thrilling either. Snotlout walked in huge strides and whenever I tried to match up to his gait, he would give me a light shove backward. Jerkface.

To make matters worse, our Dad was waiting for us when we got home. Literally, he was sitting upright and stiff in a chair and, the second Snotlout and I walked in, he shot up from his seat with both hands on his hips.

Snotlout immediately sensed a lecture brewing in the air for both of us. “Yeah, I’m just gonna see myself out of here.” He then made a scramble for the stairs, but Dad grabs him by the back of his shirt.

“Snotlout, you will sit here with your sister and listen to what I have to say,”

Displeased, Snotlout and I sit ourselves down on our staircase and watch our Dad pace back and forth in front of us. I absentmindedly begin to play with a loose thread on my cloth.

“This morning was an absolute embarrassment for the Jorgenson household,” Dad looks at me, his eyes were so narrow that it just looked like he had two black slits in his face. “You should’ve minded your own business and you,” Dad jerks his head over at Snotlout. “Should’ve been keeping a closer eye on your sister.

“Okay, I hear you, Dad but it’s not my fault that Hilde runs off in the middle of a dragon invasion. I’m only one man and there’s only so much I can do, thank you very much!”

I blow an obnoxiously loud raspberry. “You’re hardly a man,”

“You see?” Snotlout accusingly jabs his finger in my face. “This, right here, is exactly the type of disrespect I’m talking about! And if you ask me, she’s better off if you just pull her from Dragon Training!"

“What?” I exclaim. “That’s bogus! What do you expect me to do all day?”

“Oh, I don’t know, but I hear the blacksmith shop is hiring for another apprentice.” Snotlout mischievously smiles at me.

“You son of—”

“That’s enough out of the two of you!” Dad tiringly pinches the bridge of his nose. “Clearly you two are incapable of hashing things out and resolving whatever feud you have going on here. But, that doesn’t mean I’m going to pull either one of you guys out of Dragon Training. True Vikings are born when they learn to never give up their pride for anything that stands in the way of their success,” Dad then leans in closer to the two of us, making sure that he has our undivided attention. “If either one of you wants to become powerful leaders, this bickering has to stop now and if you so much as step a toe out of line...well, let’s cross that bridge when we get to that, shall we? Do I make myself clear?”

“Yessir.” Snotlout answers without a flicker hesitation. He’s always been the one that wanted to live up to Dad’s expectations, catering to his needs before his. All Snotlout ever wanted was to have Dad respect him as a Viking. In that perspective, that’s the one thing Snotlout and I have in common, but how can one live up to their parent’s expectations when they’re still trying to figure out their own, to begin with?

“Hilde?” Dad narrows his eyes at me once more. “Do I make myself clear?”

I look up at him. “Do I really have much of a choice?”

~o~o~o~o~o

“Welcome to Dragon Training!”

The gate leading into the circular arena opened, allowing the teen Vikings and I to pour inside. Snotlout has been in a funk all morning because of the “promise” he made to Dad that he wouldn’t belittle me when we started training, but what he didn’t know was that I made another promise to myself; I was just going to flat out ignore him and do my own thing and hopefully he’ll reciprocate. We’ll be nothing more than mere acquaintances to each other.

“No turning back.” I hear Astrid mutter to herself which kind of rung as odd to me. Never, I mean never, have I ever heard her express any level of fear whatsoever. Heck, Astrid could probably climb onto the back of any dragon she wanted and not even bat an eye, even if she’d never done it before.

Regardless, I give her a light nudge on the shoulder. She looks over at me with a cocked eyebrow. “You certainly had a lot of guts yesterday,”

“I did?”

“Trying to defend Hiccup even though he pretty much cost you your life,” she continues. “I figured you’d have much more pride than that.”

I purse my lips and try to ignore the tinted, burning red that was creeping its way up my neck and making its way to the tip of my ears. “My actions yesterday had nothing to do with my pride.”

“Look,” Astrid fully turns to me, one hand on her hip. “I don’t expect Snotlout to teach you anything, and I know how busy your Dad is with the Chief and trying to find the Dragon’s Nest, so it falls on you to be extra smart about things….do you understand what I’m trying to say?”

I only suppress the urge to simply nod. It’s not like anything I say at this point would matter.

“Oh, and I snagged your sword that you left on the ground during your fight with the Monstrous Nightmare,” Astrid points over to the corner of the arena, where the armor and auxiliary weapons were strewn on the floor. “I, um, figured you’d want it here for training.”

I raise my eyebrows in surprise. I nearly forgot all about Flashcut. “Wow, thanks, Astrid!”

“Sure.”

“I hope I get some serious burns!” Tuffnut’s voice cuts straight into our conversation.

Ruffnut smiles alongside her twin brother. “I’m hoping for some mauling, like on my shoulder or lower back.”

“Yeah, it’s only fun if you get a scar out of it.” Astrid points out.

“Yeah, no kidding, right?” Hiccup half-heartedly strolls into the arena with his ax swung over his shoulder, sarcasm dripping in his tone. “Pain. Love it.”

“Oh, great. Who let him in?” Tuffnut groans.

Gobber jumps in before anybody else can say anything denigrating about Hiccup. “Let’s get started! The recruit who does the best will win the honor of killing his first dragon in front of the entire village.”

“Hiccup already killed a Night Fury, so, does that disqualify him or…” Snotlout flashes a knowing look at me while laughter erupts between the other teen Vikings as they walk away towards the big arena doors.

Ignore him. Ignore him. Ignore him. You most definitely don't want to hurl him across this arena...

“Can I transfer to the class with the cool Vikings?” Tuffnut asks.

I turn around to wait for Hiccup and see Gobber whispering something to him. Whatever it is, it doesn’t look like it's helping Hiccup all that much. When Gobber walks away, I try and smile at him but all I can do is give him a sad look. Hiccup must’ve picked up what I was trying to do because he gives me a reassuring nod.

When I turn back around, I see Astrid staring at me.


	4. Chapter 4

We all line up in front of the large doors, weapons ready. We watch in suspense as Gobber starts to list off all of the dragons that we will be learning how to fight at Dragon Training.

“Behind these doors are just a few of the many species you will learn to fight!” Gobber gestures to the first big door. “The Deadly Nadder!”

“Speed: eight; Armor: sixteen,” Fishlegs utters.

“The Hideous Zippleback!” Gobber continues to list off.

“Plus eleven stealth times two.”

“The Monstrous Nightmare!”

“Firepower: fifteen.”

“The Terrible Terror!”

“Attack: eight; Venom: twelve!”

“The Sand Wraith!”

“Shot limit: eight."

“CAN YOU STOP THAT?!” Gobber shouts at Fishlegs in annoyance. Gobber then turns to the very last door. “And...the Gronckle!”

Fishlegs couldn’t help himself—he whispers, “Jaw strength: eight.” 

Gobber rests one of his hands on the crank that opens the Gronckle’s door.

“Whoa, whoa, wait! Aren’t you gonna teach us first?!” Snotlout frantically asks.

Gobber simply smiles. “I believe in learning on the job.” With that, he releases the orange Gronckle from his cage. Within seconds, the Boulder class dragon swallows a handful of rocks and starts blasting at us. We all run away in opposite directions, trying to avoid being fired at, as Gobber rattles away. “Today is about survival. If you get blasted...you’re dead! Quick! What’s the first thing you’re going to need?”

“A doctor?!” Hiccup asks.

“Plus five-speed?!” Fishlegs stutters.

And then the answer finally comes to me. “A shield!”

Gobber nods at me in approval. “Shields! Go! Your most important piece of equipment is your shield! If you must make a choice between a sword or a shield, take the shield!”

We all make a dash for the shields. I pick up the first shield I see, but I also pick up my Flashcut sword—I didn’t want to lose it again.

“Get your hands off my shield!” Tuffnut yells.

From the corner of my eye, I see the twins tugging back and forth on one of the shields.

“There’s like a million shields!” Ruffnut responds.

“Take that one, it has flowers. Girls like flowers.”

Ruffnut snatches the round shield away from Tuffnut and then forcefully slams it on his head. “Oops, now this one has blood on it."

Suddenly, the Gronckle zips over towards the twins and blasts their shield with a fireball. The siblings fall to the ground in a state of confusion. Their useless, fallen shield on the ground at their feet.

“Ruffnut, Tuffnut, you’re out!” Gobber informs them.

“What?” They confusingly say together.

“Those shields are good for another thing too: noise! Make lots of it throw off a dragon’s aim!”

As if on cue, the Gronckle makes its way towards me. I start hitting my sword against the edge of my shield and notice the Gronckle’s pupil dilating, shaking its head in confusion. I look around and notice the remaining teens doing the same thing.

“All dragons have a limited number of shots,” Gobber continues. “How many does a Gronckle have?”

“Five?” Snotlout guesses.

“No, six!” Fishlegs corrects him.

“Correct, six!”

Fishlegs beams, but then his shield gets blasted out of his hand by the Gronckle, leaving him defenseless.

“Fishlegs, out!”

He then runs away screaming, his hands theatrically waving in the air. I scan my surroundings and notice Hiccup hiding behind a plank.

“Hiccup, get in there!” Gobber orders.

Hiccup inches his way outside of the plank, but then the wall next to him gets fired by the Gronckle. He then inches back behind the plank.

I shake my head and find Astrid keeping a close eye on the Gronckle. She catches me looking, hesitates, and then waves me over.

“You watch my back,” she instructs me. “And I’ll watch you. For now.”

I obediently nod my head and we stand back-to-back, always keeping an eye on every possible angle that the Gronckle could fire at us from.

After a moment or two, Snotlout butts right in, breaking us apart. He then glues himself to Astrid’s side and actually starts flirting with her. “So, anyway I’m moving into my parents’ basement. You should come by sometime and work out. You look like you work out!”

Ignore, ignore, ignore, ignore, ign— 

“Move!”

I look up and see the dragon speeding towards us, his mouth ready to spit scalding, hot lava. Astrid cartwheels away and Snotlout pushes me and tries to cover us with his shield...until that plan fails and the Gronckle fires at the both of us, flinging us to the ground.

“Hilde and Snotlout, you’re done!"

I shove my brother off of me. I don’t dare to say a single word to him. I wasn’t going to break the promise that I made to myself.

“You, muttonhead, why didn’t you move?” He shoves me back. “Are you trying to kill yourself?”

I remain silent. I just keep shaking my head.

“Oh, so what, now you’re not talking to me?” He demands.

I hurriedly stand up and march away, clenching my shield with both hands. I join the twins and Fishlegs from the sidelines and watch the rest of the lesson unravel. Snotlout eventually appears with a grim look, but he makes sure to stay far away from me. When I concentrate on the action in front of me, I see Astrid and Hiccup standing next to each other.

“So, I guess it’s just you and me, huh?” Hiccup asks her.

“Nope, just you.” Astrid runs away, leaving him all alone. The Gronckle fires and hits Hiccup’s shield away, rolling it away from him.

“One shot left!” Gobber announces.

Hiccup chases after his shield as it continues to roll away from him, but the dragon is not too far behind. It backs him up against a wall and corners him. It prepares for its final shot.

Oh no. 

“Hiccup!” Gobber runs over towards the dragon and grabs it by the mouth, causing it to misfire its final shot straight into the wall. “And that’s six!” Gobber pants as it guides the dragon back to its cage. “Go back to bed, ya overgrown sausage!” He then tosses it in his cage and locks it. Hiccup is still sitting up against the wall as the rest of us slowly begin to gather around. Gobber turns to all of us. “You’ll get another chance, don’t you worry,” he then turns to Hiccup. “Remember: a dragon will always—always—go for the kill.”

Hiccup stands up from the wall and examines the misfired hole that the Gronckle shot. He then stares off into the distance with a puzzled expression. I try to lock eyes with him, but he is actively trying to avoid my gaze. Something is definitely up. And I bet it has something to do with that Night Fury that he shot down.

o~o~o~o~o

I turn around to make sure Snotlout or Astrid aren't watching me, and then I dive right into the forest, disappearing into the earth. I trek through the forest behind Hiccup, watching him as he follows down a path that he has clearly already been down before. He is quiet for most of the time, but I hear him muttering things along the lines of, “....can’t believe I’m doing this….how did I manage to get into this situation…”

I sigh and decide to speak up this time. “What’re you doing, Hiccup?”

A startled cry escapes his throat as he turns around. “H-Hilde?! Is this a new habit of yours? Following people around and then revealing yourself in the most dramatic way, resulting in heart attacks"

I laugh despite myself. “Look, I’m not as dense as Snotlout and I know there’s something going on. Plus, I did see you shoot down that Night Fury yesterday and I intend on seeing this whole thing through. So, did you find it?”

Hiccup stammers. “Well, uh, it’s a bit more complicated than that. I-I mean—”

I clasp my hands together. “Oh, you are totally onto something! Man, imagine the look on Berk’s face when you bring home your first dragon kill—”

Hiccup unanticipatedly grabs me by my forearms. “Hilde, slow down. It’s way more complicated than that,” he bucks his head down and lowers his voice. “Yes, I did find the Night Fury, but I-I couldn’t kill it.”

“What do you mean?”

“It means exactly how it sounds!” Hiccup shakes his head. “It’s still alive, Hilde. It was all tangled up in rope when I saw it and I set it free. But, the thing is though is that it didn’t kill me...it had a chance to kill me and it didn’t! So, my question is: do dragons really always go for the kill?”

I glance into Hiccup’s piercingly green eyes—they were filled with wonder and sparkling with curiosity. I knew the smart thing to do right now was to notify a trusted adult. That would be a really smart thing to do right now. I could hear Astrid's words echoing in my head about being "extra smart." Anything other than that option could result in both of us getting killed by the world’s most dangerous dragon.

But, after all the lectures and chastising I’ve experienced lately, this was like a breath of fresh air. Hiccup’s tone and attitude were contagious enough to make me want to venture out further into the woods. This was exciting, this was thrilling…

This was insanity. And I did not care at all. 

“Hilde?”

“Hm?”

“What’re you thinking?”

“I'm thinking we discover the truth.”


	5. Chapter 5

I couldn’t prevent the chill that ran up and down my spine. When I look over at Hiccup, I know he sees what I see. Black scales were littered across the forest floor along with the Hiccup’s broken bola. He picks one of them up, examines it, and then drops it back on the ground. I notice my hand brushing against my Flashcut sword that was looped through my belt and immediately stops, putting my hands in a tight fist at my sides. I don’t really know exactly what we plan on doing to the Night Fury when we actually see it, but I do know that killing it wasn’t part of the picture.

“Hiccup,” I urge. “We should keep moving.”

He looks up at me and nods in agreement. Hiccup spots a cove near the dragon scales and enters. I follow him, hot on his heels. We survey our surroundings once we are inside, but there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.

“Well, this was stupid.” Hiccup finally declares.

“He has to be around here somewhere."

“You think?”

My eyes fall on a blurred, black movement speeding past Hiccup—no doubt it was the Night Fury. Hiccup and I jump up in surprise, completely caught off guard by the sudden change in setting. The Night Fury falls back on the ground and settles down into the cove.

Hiccup and I take a minute to catch our breaths before my eyes settle back on Hiccup. “Think I got a pretty good feeling.”

He playfully scoffs at me before his eyes light up with an idea. Hiccup drags me by the arm and hides us both at the entrance.

“What’re you getting at?”

“Shush, I’m trying to visualize something.”

He whips out his journal and pencil and begins making a sketch of the Night Fury, his eyes darting back and forth between the page and the creature, trying to catch each intricate detail of it. I nervously fumbled with my leather gauntlets, watching the black dragon as it flaps its wings around and poking its head through the blue stream water that ran through the vast cove. It hasn't noticed us yet.

“Why doesn’t it just fly away?” I finally ask.

Hiccup’s eyes light up once more and then nudges me in the arm. “Check this out,” he hands me his journal and shows me his finished sketch of the dragon. “Notice anything off?”

I study the drawing for a few seconds while I glance back and forth between the page and the Night Fury. The realization then dawns on me, like a light bulb slowly flickering on. I gingerly rub my hand against one of the dragon’s tail fin, erasing it entirely from the drawing.

Hiccup nods. “That’s more like it.”

I let out a sigh and try to hand Hiccup his journal and pencil back. He reaches for his journal, but then the pencil gets knocked out of my hand in the process, rolling and falling down into the cove. I try to take a dive for it but Hiccup grabs me by the arm to steady me. However, the sound catches the dragon’s attention, and before we know it, it’s staring up at us. Hiccup and I remain frozen, realizing that even the slightest movement could send this dragon into a tizzy. The Night Fury’s glaring, green eyes made my stomach jump and Hiccup still grasped onto my arm.

But, it didn’t show any sign of attacking. There seemed to some underlying emotion etched into the corner of its eyes...one that could only be defined as a curiosity.

o~o~o~o~o

The walk back from the forest to Meade Hall wasn’t exactly a joy ride, especially when it started raining. Our boots squished against the wet, slippery grass and raindrops damped our entire hair, rolling out of our scalps, down our nose and cheeks, and onto the ground, where our boots would just squash over with every slugged step that we took. Yet, through the midst of all things, one thing remains certain between the two of us: we needed to learn more about that dragon. We needed to visit it again. Yes, it was dangerous, but it was also scared and hurt. At the end of the day, when you really boil it all down, it was really no different from us.

Meade Hall welcomed us with open arms, yanking us from the cool air and into the heated atmosphere. Hiccup and I were still wet, but the heat sufficed. We saw the cluster of teen Vikings and Gobber sitting at a long wooden table, using torches and a fireplace as a source of flight. We go to fetch ourselves a meal.

“Alright, where did Astrid go wrong today?” Gobber asks.

“I mistimed my somersault dive,” she answers right away. “It was sloppy. It threw off my reverse tumble.”

“Yeah, we noticed,” Ruffnut says in a sarcastic tone.

Snotlout jumps to Astrid’s side. “No, no, you were great. That was so ‘Astrid’.”

“She’s right, you have to be tough on yourself,” Gobber notices Hiccup and I grabbed a plate. I walk over to sit down with Gobber and the teens, but then Hiccup goes and sits a little bit away from everybody else. I pull my upper lip in pity and join him. “Where did Hiccup go wrong today?”

“Uh, he showed up?” Ruffnut says out of amusement.

“He didn’t get eaten,” Tuffnut adds.

“He’s never where he should be.” Astrid glares at Hiccup. She looks over at me for a quick second and then looks away.

“Thank you, Astrid,” Gobber says. “You need to live and breathe this stuff,” he pulls out a large, thick, dusty book and slams it on the table. “The Dragon Manual. Everything we know about every dragon we know of.” Thunder roars in the distance and rain pounds against the roof of the hall. “No attacks tonight. Study up.”

Tuffnut dramatically gasps. “Wait, you mean, read?”

“While we’re still alive?” Ruffnut complains.

Snotlout pounds one of his fist against the table. “Why read words when you can just kill the stuff the words tell you stuff about?”

Flawed logic. Miserably, flawed logic.

“Oh! I’ve read it like, seven times!” Fishlegs excitedly states. “There’s this water dragon that sprays boiling water at your face. And-and there’s this one that buries itself for like a week—”

“Yeah, that sounds great,” Tuffnut brushes him off. “See, there was a chance I was going to read that…”

“...But, now….” Ruffnut agrees.

“You guys read, I’ll go kill stuff,” Snotlout pushes himself away from the table. He narrows his eyes over at Hiccup and I and swings over, placing himself between Hiccup and I. “I don’t know what you two freaks are up to, but I’m done trying to figure it out. Just don’t expect me to back either of you two up when our fathers return to Berk.”

“We’re not asking you to do anything, Snotlout.” Hiccup points out. Snotlout glances at me but I shift my eyes away. No way was I giving him the satisfaction of getting angry.

He scoffs and shoves himself away from the table. “Not yet you are.” He then stomps away from us and exits the hall. Fishlegs continues to ramble away about all types of dragons and then leaves right behind Snotlout.

Hiccup staggers away from our table and tries to sit next to Astrid, who had the book placed right in front of her. “So I guess we’ll share…?”

“Read it.” Astrid firmly pushes the book away from her and quickly leaves the table.

“All mine then. Wow, okay. So, I’ll see you, uh—” a door slam resonates throughout the hall. “—tomorrow.” Hiccup quietly finishes.

I push my meal away and sit next to Hiccup, adjusting the book so it was in between us. “We can share.”

Hiccup softly smiles. “Thanks, Hilde.”

We both flip open the book and begin reading its contents.

“‘Dragon classifications,’” Hiccup starts. “‘Strike Class, Fear Class, Mystery Class.’”

I run my index finger along one of the text lines and read it out loud. “‘Thunderdrum: This reclusive dragon inhabits sea caves and dark tide pools. When startled, the Thunderdrum produces a concussive sound that can kill a man at close range. Extremely dangerous, kill on sight.’”

Hiccup points at another one. “‘Timberjack: This gigantic creature has razor-sharp wings that can slice through full-grown trees. Extremely dangerous, kill on sight.’”

I scan my eyes over the next one. “‘Scauldron: Sprays scalding water at its victim. Extremely dangerous. Changewing: Even newly hatched dragons can spray acid. Kill on sight.’”

“‘Gronckle, Zippleback, The Skrill, Boneknapper, Whispering Death….’” Hiccup lists off each dragon.

I read through the rest of the text, feeling like their pictures were coming to life. “‘Burns its victims, buries its victims, chokes its victims, turns its victims inside-out. Extremely dangerous, extremely dangerous, kill on sight, kill on sight, kill on sight…’”

Hiccup and I eventually turn the book to the last page, where we then find the words Night Fury written across the top. We look at each other and then look back down at the page.

“‘Night Fury: Speed, unknown. Size, unknown.’” Hiccup reads.

“‘The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. Never engage this dragon. Your only chance, hide and...’”

‘“...pray it does not find you.” Hiccup finishes. He takes out his journal, opens it to the page with his sketched Night Fury, and then places it in the book. I nod in approval, my hands nervously tugging at my leather gauntlets.


	6. Chapter 6

From the bottom of the arena, I wave my sword up in the air, trying to catch Gobber’s attention. “Hey, Gobber! I have a question that requires an immediate answer, and since I didn’t get the chance to ask you before—”

“If you’re not bleeding out then I don’t have to answer a single thing right now!” Gobber stares down at me from up above. “Now take down this dragon!”

The Deadly Nadder was our targeted dragon to fight today. Gobber had set up a large, stone maze for us to maneuver around to help hide and escape from the dragon. It was currently sending off spine shots as a form of defense, but since the other teens were preoccupying it at this moment, Hiccup and I figured that we’d take this opportunity to ask more about Night Furies.

I look at Hiccup and shrug my shoulders. He chews on his lower lip and then turns towards Gobber. “It’s just that we happened to notice that the book had nothing on Night Furies. Is there another book? Or a sequel? Maybe a little Night Fury pamphlet?”

The Deadly Nadder appears out of nowhere and fires at him. Hiccup gasps in surprise but raises his shield up, protecting himself. “WHOA!”

“Focus, Hiccup!” Gobber sternly yells. “You’re not even trying!”

Hiccup and I scamper away from the bird-like dragon, covering ourselves with our shields.

“Today is all about attack!” Gobber announces. “Nadders are quick and light on their feet! Your job is to be quicker and lighter!”

Fishlegs scurries away from the Deadly Nadder as it begins to shoot off at him.“AAAH! I’m really beginning to question your teaching methods!”

“So am I!” I agree.

“Look for its blind spot!” Gobber instructs. “Every dragon has one! Find it, hide in it, and strike!”

The Tracker class dragon jumps in front of Ruffnut and Tuffnut, but they stand directly in front of it so that it doesn’t notice them because the creature does not possess binocular vision. However, the twins bicker over something, which alerts the dragon and causes it to attack them with its fire. They jump out of the way and avoid getting burned by a hair.

“Blindspot, yes. Deaf spot? Not so much,” Gobber chuckles to himself. Hiccup takes this time to run back over to him and ask him more questions about our famous, black dragon. I decide to duck and zig-zag around the gray maze in an attempt to ward off the Deadly Nadder so Hiccup doesn't have to worry about while he tries to talk to Gobber. When I see the creature making its way towards Hiccup, I dash up to it and bang my sword against my shield to throw it off. The dragon staggers for a moment and looks around in confusion before turning around and making its way towards me. I run away from it, slamming straight into Astrid.

“Ergh!” She says in annoyance. “What are you—”

I put a finger to my lips. “Sh, it’s coming.” I jerk her to the ground and pull her against the wall.

Astrid lifts her battle ax into the air. “If it gets any closer, we should prepare to take it out. Get out your sword.”

I go to pull out my sword, hesitate, and then stop. Instead, I lower Astrid's ax down. “No, we can’t hurt it. We can be stealthy.”

She gives me a strange look. “Do you have maggots in your brain? Of course, we have to hurt it, this is Dragon Training!”

“But—”

“If you can’t handle it then get out,” she snaps. “I can take care of it on my own.” Astrid readies her ax into the air once and more breathes out a quick breath. “This is Dragon Training.”

The dragon swoops down on the other wall next to us and we can hear it making its way over to us.

“I know, I know, but hypothetically—” Astrid and I both hear Hiccup arguing with Gobber.

Astrid clenches her jaw and glares over at him. “Hiccup! Get down!” She whisper-shouts.

Hiccup looks up, sees the dragon that we’re hiding from, and scrambles over next to us. Astrid’s grip on her ax was getting tighter, tighter, and tighter while the Deadly Nadder was getting closer, closer, and closer….

Snotlout suddenly appears out of nowhere and pushes Astrid out of the way just as she’s about to strike. “Watch out, babe. I’ll take care of this!”

“Hey!” Astrid protests.

He ignores her and swings his hammer at the dragon, but ultimately misses. “The sun was in my eyes, Astrid! What do you want me to do, block out the sun? I mean, I could do that, but I don’t have time right now!”

Astrid, clearly annoyed, runs away and Snotlout follows her, continuing to “justify” his mistake.

I stay behind with Hiccup as he turns back to Gobber. “They probably take the daytime off. You know, like a cat. Has anyone ever seen one napping?”

“Hiccup! Hilde!” Gobber warns.

Hiccup and I whip around and see the Deadly Nadder knocking over walls, almost causing a real-life domino effect. The maze was being ruined.

Without being able to speak, I run as fast as I can. I couldn’t be crushed by one of those stone walls. When I look up again, I see Astrid leaping up on top of the maze and jumping from wall to wall. Smart. I follow suit, heaving myself up on a wall and jumping around for safety. But then I notice the lack of walls that were standing upright for me to jump on and begin to panic.

“Hilde!” Fishlegs calls out to me from the sidelines, away from any line of fire or being morbidly crushed to death by stone walls. “Jump over here! It’s safe over here, trust me!”

I don’t have time to think about it. I launch over, my eyes tightly shut, and my arms and legs wildly sprawled out during my free fall. When I open my eyes again, I fall straight onto Fishlegs, rolling over into a fetal position on the hard, cold ground. My shield and sword clanged on the ground in the process, but despite possible slight bruising on my side and my wrist not being fully healed yet, I will survive and live and breathe another day.

Fishlegs worriedly crawls over to me. “Hilde, are you okay? I’m sorry I asked you to jump, but it didn’t look good for you out there—”

I sit up and place a hand on his broad shoulders. “You did the right thing. It was quick thinking and I made it out. Sorry for falling on you like that.” I crack a smile at him, but it quickly falls when a sudden thought comes to me. “Where’s Hiccup and Astrid?”

Fishlegs looks up. “Oh no…”

“What?” I scramble to my feet. Astrid was still jumping from wall to wall and the Nadder was close behind her. Hiccup had nowhere else to run and was caught in the middle. Astrid jumps on the last collapsing wall right next to Hiccup and then falls right on top of him, taking the wall down with them.

“HICCUP!” Astrid and I yell at the same time. Debris and dust fill the air as the rest of us look ahead at the fallen maze before us.

Fishlegs and I run over to where Snotlout, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut were standing and they all bore the same shocked expressions on their faces.

“Do you think they’re…” Ruffnut trails off.

“They’re not dead if that’s what you’re thinking,” I say.

“I dunno,” Tuffnut simply shrugs. “Those are pretty heavy walls. I can see Astrid making it out, but Hiccup is like a human-twig...but, hey, maybe it's for the best 'cause it’s not like any of us expected him to last very long in Dragon Training—”

I can’t take it anymore. I didn’t want him to finish his sentence, so I sock him right in the face.

Tuffnut wobbles backward, hunching over and clenching his nose with both hands. “Oh, I’m hurt! I am very much hurt!”

“Hilde!” Ruffnut yells in surprise.

“Are you trying to hurt your other hand?” Snotlout asks, his eyes wide.

I remain tight-lipped and just focus on the throbbing sensation on my slightly-cut knuckle.

“Guys, look!” Fishlegs points at the arena. The debris was now clearing up and we all see Astrid stuck on top of Hiccup, who had her ax jammed right into his shield, unable to get it out.

“Ooooh! Love on the battlefield!” Tuffnut, who was still holding his nose, jokes.

Ruffnut scoffs. “She could do better.”

Hiccup mutters something to Astrid as she forcefully tries to free her ax from the shield. She pulls and tugs, but the Deadly Nadder was still alive and heading their way unless somebody did something. Now.

“Astrid, take this!” I holler out to her and toss her my Flashcut sword.

Astrid lurches off of Hiccup and catches my sword. In one swift movement, just as the dragon is in her reach, she strikes it. The dragon immediately retreats, leaving everyone alone.

I felt out of breath and light-headed. I helped Astrid hurt that dragon...I didn’t even think twice about it, I just handed her my weapon and allowed her to do it.

They were in danger! A voice tries to reason with me. You did what you had to do!

Ever since I encountered that Night Fury, I didn’t feel the same about hurting dragons. I’ve done it before when I had to defend myself during invasions. But, for the first time I ever, I felt guilty about hurting a dragon, even if it was potentially putting my friends in mortal peril. The worst, most overcoming, part about all of this is that I don’t think this guilty feeling is ever going to truly go away.

“Well done, Astrid.” Gobber accolades.

Astrid silently thanks him and then looks at Hiccup, her eyes fuming. She snatches her battle ax away from him, even though it was still lodged in his shield. “Is this some kind of joke to you?” Astrid jabs my sword right at him. “Our parents’ war is about to become ours! Figure out which side you’re on.” With that, she leaves him alone, crosses over to me, thrusts my sword back in my hand, and scuffles away.


	7. Chapter 7

Hiccup has been quiet this whole time since we left Dragon Training. We were on our way back to the cove, except this time we came with a fish (a “peace offering” of some sort.) and my shield. Hiccup’s forehead was wrinkled in deep thought and he was dragging his feet along, but I decided to let him be alone with his thoughts. He probably wasn’t up for out-loud conversation after a day like today.

The cove was suspiciously quiet. Hiccup grabs my shield and raises it up in front as he enters through the cove, but we come across two boulders that we have to squeeze through and the shield ends up getting stuck in between the two rocks.

Hiccup sighs and crouches down to make his way through to the center of the cove and I follow him. We look around for a little bit until we spot the Night Fury, creeping its way out from behind a rock. Hiccup and I stiffen until he takes out his fish and holds it up in front of him. The dragon cocks its head and slowly approaches us, sniffing the fish and then hesitantly sniffing us. However, the dragon pitches backward and lets out an audible sound when it notices Hiccup’s knife that was looped through his belt and my sword that was also stashed at my side.

Hiccup quickly detects the problem and holds his knife out, drops on the floor, and—for extra measure—kicks it in the nearby water stream. The Night Fury takes notice of this but then looks at me with narrowed eyes when he still sees my sword.

Hiccup nudges my arm. “Get rid of your sword.”

I hesitate. “But, it was a gift. Snotlout gave it to me.” Granted, it was because our parents forced him to do it when he forgot to get me a present on my tenth birthday and that was only after I cried hard enough. But, regardless, it was a cool sword and he gave it to me.

“Unless you’d rather be this dragon’s next meal other than this piece of dead fish, then get rid of it. Now.” Hiccup tries to remain cool and calm under the dragon’s presence, but you can tell that he was desperately pleading with me.

I silently groan but obey by tossing my sword into the water. “You can be the one that helps me fish it out, later….no pun intended.”

Hiccup laughs but puts a stop to it when the dragon begins to approach us again with newfound trust. When it leans in closer to the fish, it reveals its toothless mouth, which confused Hiccup and me.

“Huh. Toothless.” Hiccup states with a peak of curiosity in his tone.

“Yeah, I could’ve sworn you had…”

The dragon’s teeth suddenly pop out from his gums and it snatches the fish from Hiccup’s hand, swallowing the whole thing.

The entire encounter caused my entire body to jolt in surprise, bringing back an entire wave of nerves as I sputter out. “...teeth.”

Toothless stares back at us and approaches, sniffing Hiccup to check and see if he had more fish, backing him against a rock. “Uh, uh, no, no, no. I-I don't have anymore.”

Toothless shakes his head at Hiccup and begins sniffing me, back me up against the same rock as Hiccup. “Oh, no, no, I’m completely tapped empty, so you won’t find anything fishy about me...no pun intended.”

“Enough with the puns!”

“I’m sorry! I’m nervous!”

Toothless begins to make a weird, gurgling sound in his throat. I flash a quizzical look over at Hiccup, until Toothless regurgitates half of the fish, spitting the saliva-covered, slimy fish onto Hiccup’s lap. The stale, fishy smell hits my nostril and I find myself full-out gagging, cramping my stomach and hunching forward.

“Oh, Thor…” I mutter.

“Play it cool,” Hiccup sets a hand on my forearm, trying to prevent myself from gagging.

Toothless seems completely unfazed from our disgusted reaction and falls backward onto its two hind legs. The dragon looked as if he was personifying a small child or dog with the way he sat, staring back at us with innocent, green eyes.

Hiccup clutches the half-eaten fish into his hands, unsure of what to do with it. Toothless looks at the two of us for a few seconds before darting his eyes at the fish and at Hiccup’s mouth. Hiccup instantly understands what he needs to do and lets out an unhappy sigh.

I gasp. “You’re seriously not actually—”

Too late. Hiccup lifts the fish up to his lips and takes a small bite from it, a thin trail of saliva follows once he pulls away.

Hiccup groans, his mouth still full of the fish. “Mmmmm….”

Toothless cocks his head.

Hiccup holds the fish up and tries to make an appetizing noise. “Mmhmm…”

However, still not fully convinced, the dragon makes a swallowing noise. Hiccup helplessly drops the fish onto his lap, his cheeks puffed out from the fish. Hesitating, he squeezes his eyes shut and swallows the food, almost gagging it up, but he manages to get it down in one piece.

I shudder. “Man, I would really hate to be you…"

Toothless licks his lips and Hiccup gives him a half-hearted smile. Amused, the dragon tries to return his smile, exposing his toothless gums. Hiccup takes this opportunity to reach up and touch the dragon’s nose. Suddenly, Toothless’s ears drawback snarls at Hiccup’s hand and then flies away into the other side of the cove.

I draw in a large breath and then exhale. “Hey, it’s progress.”

o~o~o~o~o

Hiccup and I decide to linger around the cove for a little while longer, in hopes that the dragon will interact with us again. I had to hunt for my sword from the water anyways. Upon recollecting it, I made sure to hide it back in the entrance of the cove so Toothless couldn’t see it. I’d grab it later on the way out.

The sky was turning pink and the orange rays of the sun was casting down onto the circular cove. At this time, Toothless was hanging upside down with his eyes closed.

Bored, I pick up a stick from the ground and begin making tracings in the dirt. At first, I was just drawing out some random lines, but then I decide to draw Hiccup—which basically just ends up being a stick-figure drawing of him, highlighting his toothpick-like body, and making his hair all swept, covering half of his face, and only exposing one eye.

Through the midst of this, Hiccup strolls over and sits next to me, but his forehead wrinkles when he sees what I am doing. “Is that...is that supposed to be me?”

I give him a toothy grin. “Uh-huh. I pretty much nailed you, don’t you think?”

He laughs. “Absolutely. Wow, uh, I really liked what you did with my body. Real, subtle touch to it.”

“Yeah,” I sigh. “Didn’t think I could picture any scrawnier, but alas, here we are!”

Hiccup looks at me, faking offense. “Oh, now you’re just playing a dangerous game here, missy! There will be consequences!”

“Bring it on.”

Hiccup snatches the stick from my hand and begins drawing my head. He gives me two eyes and a mouth but then starts furiously drawing a bunch of scribbles around my head, no doubt trying to poke fun at my wild, curly hair.

“Yeah, yeah,” I wave it off. “You’re just jealous of my dark brown, luscious locks.”

“You wish,” Hiccup smiles. “Seriously, how many rubber bands have you destroyed when trying to tie your hair back?”

He tugs on my scraggly braid and I bat his hand away. “I lost count after a while…”

“Psh.” Hiccup dances the edge of the stick onto the dirt for a few moments. He begins making different types of shapes and lines until it becomes clear that he’s trying to draw Toothless.

“Make sure you get the eyes right.” Is all I say to Hiccup.

A shadow creeps upon us and it sends a small chill through us, which is a major contrast to the warm, breezy climate we were experiencing seconds beforehand. From the corner of my eye, I can tell that Toothless has made his way towards and was observing Hiccup as he continues to draw on the dirt. Hiccup’s eyes widen a bit, but it only prompts him to continue. Like Hiccup, I keep looking straight at the ground, trying to avoid eye contact.

Toothless makes a few, low, “cooing” noises. Hiccup and I then hear him bustling away. We stare at each other in confusion until we hear the sound of branches breaking. Toothless returns with a tree branch in his mouth and he’s dragging it alongside him on the ground, creating a jumble of lines, all zig-zagging around us with no clear direction or formation. I can’t stop myself from watching in awe as this dragon tries to recreate what we were doing, trying to connect and find common ground between us. It was breathtaking and overwhelmingly a positive sight.

The Night Fury continues to dance around with the flimsy branch even unintentionally knocking Hiccup over the head with it until finally his “creation” is done. Toothless stares at the ground in his satisfaction. Hiccup and I look around, not really knowing where to look or where to start. Hiccup walks over, stepping onto a line, causing Toothless to growl at him. I grab Hiccup’s arm and pull him away from the line and, as soon as I do that, the dragon coos in happiness. Curious, I put my foot on top of another line, which again makes Toothless snarl in my direction and, when I lift my foot up again, he purrs. Hiccup and I smile at each other and we both venture off in different directions, making sure to not step on any of the lines. I carefully walk and step over until I find myself out of the cluster of lines on the ground, and I watch Hiccup still trying to find his way out. However, without realizing, he backs into the Night Fury. I try to say something, but something in the air prevents me from disrupting the atmosphere. Toothless breathes down on Hiccup, not showing any signs of moving. Hiccup tries to reach up and touch his nose again, but the dragon flinches away. Hiccup tries again, but looks away this time, stretching his hand up to touch the dragon’s nose. Toothless closes his eyes and finally meets Hiccup halfway and rests his nose onto Hiccup’s palm—the Night Fury officially has our undeniable trust.

My heart soars and beams with warmth in my chest, although the exchange happens in less than ten seconds. Toothless opens his eyes and glances over at me. He nods at me in reassuringly, but it could’ve just been my imagination or my mind trying to factor nothing into something. But, I took it, and Toothless flies away, leaving Hiccup and I completely dazed. This was truly a moment that will go down in Viking history, this magical exchange between the villain and the heroes.

This was truly an everlasting, infinite moment.

o~o~o~o~o

“Hilde...I understand if you don’t want to do this anymore.”

I halt in my footsteps. Hiccup has been quiet ever since we left the cove and this was the last thing I expected him to say. I don’t know about him, but I was replaying that moment in my head, like a scene in a movie. I was still living off of that moment, so I had no idea where he was coming from.

“Hilde,” he says again, facing me. “I know I sprung a lot on you and you didn’t really ask for any of this. You were just trying to be a good friend.”

“Hiccup,” I sputter. “I’m afraid I’m not following….”

He licks his lips and takes a breath. “I’m trying to say...there are a lot of risks that go into this entire situation, but despite that, I don’t find myself wanting to stop. No matter what I do, I always find trouble, even when I’m trying to correct my ways. There’s just really no telling how all of this is going to unfold, so I’m giving you an out.”

“An out?”

“Yes,” he nods. “If things get hairy, I can go through this on my own. It’s just...I understand if you don’t want to be around for the bitter end."

Without thinking, I rip off my gauntlets and show Hiccup my two hands. “What do you see, Hiccup?”

He raises his eyebrows when he sees my one hand that wasn’t sprained and clothed. “Woah, what did you do to it? Did the dragon—"

“No, Hiccup,” I reply, brushing my fingers past my bruised knuckles. “I got this from punching Tuffnut in the face. He was saying bad things about you so I punched him.”

Hiccup sighs. “Hilde, you really don’t have to—”

“Hiccup, I wanted to. Do you see my other hand? I sprained it because I was trying to protect you from that Monstrous Nightmare.”

“What’s your point, Hilde?”

“My point?” I drop my hands to my side. “I have two injured hands. Not one, but two and it’s not because someone forced me to get them. I was the one that followed you in the first place and even though chaos erupted because of that, I still followed you again. Even after I hurt my one hand, I hurt my other one because it meant doing right by you. Hiccup, I live for the bitter end. I breathe for the bitter end, I’m so excited and ready for the bitter end. Witnessing a moment with that Night Fury, nonetheless experiencing it, makes everything else seem a little less important,” I put my hands on Hiccup’s shoulders. “If there’s more of those moments along the way, you better believe that I want to be there for it. I want to help you. Nobody is forcing my hand because I’m giving it to you.”

Hiccup breaks out into a huge grin. He leaps forward and hugs me tightly, his chin nuzzling into my shoulder. I return the hug as I rest my head onto this chest.

When he breaks away, he is still smiling. “I...I think I want to train it.”

“Then let’s train it.”


	8. Chapter 8

“...And with one twist, he took my hand, and swallowed it whole,” Gobber’s voice dances with enthusiasm, matching the excitement in his eyes, as he continues to tell us the story on how he lost his hand and leg. “And I saw the look on his face: I was delicious. He must have passed the word because it wasn't a month before another one of them took my leg.” He gestures to his peg leg using his hook hand.

I glance around the circle of Vikings, with Hiccup and Fishlegs on both sides of me. The fire in front of us crackled and sparked into the night from up above our watchtower.

“Isn’t it weird to think that your hand was inside a dragon?” Fishlegs questions. “Like if your mind was still in control of it, you could have killed the dragon from the inside by... crushing his heart, or something.”

I try to visualize that tactic in my mind and shake my head.

Snotlout pounds his fist and begins to rage. “I swear, I'm so angry right now! I'll avenge your beautiful hand and your beautiful foot. I'll chop off the legs of every dragon I fight. With my face!”

Calm down, King Neptune. Maybe you should learn how to throw an ax before you risk getting your face chomped off.

Of course, I don’t say any of this out loud. I’m still trying to keep true to my promise.

“Un-unh. It's the wings and the tails you really want. If it can't fly, it can't get away. A downed dragon is a dead dragon,” Gobber is too busy picking off the meat from his animal bone, and the other teen Vikings are too engaged in his piece of advice to notice the worried glances Hiccup and I were exchanging to one another.

If we don’t do something about Toothless soon...well, it’s an ending that I’d rather not think about.

“Alright, I’m off to bed,” Gobber announces. He gets up from his seated positions and looks around at all of us. “You should be, too. Tomorrow, we get to the big boys. Slowly but surely making our way up to the Monstrous Nightmare. But, who’ll win the honor of killing it?"

Hiccup and I exchange one more look and, with a nod, we both push our food to the side and begin making our way down the rickety stairs of the watchtower. I steal a glance from behind me, but when I see Astrid carefully watching us, I instantly turn my head away and keep moving forward.

“It’s gonna be me,” I hear Tuffnut declare from behind me. “It’s my destiny. See?”

Fishlegs gasps. “Your Mom let you get a tattoo?”

“It’s not a tattoo, it’s a birthmark.” Tuffnut corrects.

“Okay, I’ve been stuck with you since birth and that’s never been there before,” Ruffnut says.

“Yes, it was! You’ve just never seen me from my left side until now!”

o~o~o~o~o

Hiccup and I enter into the small forge located inside the blacksmith shop. He flicks on the light, illuminating the entire room of its weaponry and machinery.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” I mutter. “‘Cause Toothless needs our help and I’ve never built a thing in my entire life.”

“You underestimate me,” Hiccup teases. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it looks like working as Gobber’s apprentice is finally going to pay off.”

“Well, what’d you have in mind?”

Hiccup sits himself down at his wooden desks. He clears out some old, rough sketches and sets down blank pieces of paper in front of him. “Gobber said that a down dragon is a dead dragon, so the only way we can help Toothless is if we give him back the power to do what dragons were born to do; fly.”

“Yeah, but he doesn’t have a fin….”

“So we make him a new one!” Hiccup states. He begins sketching out some designs.

“Okay,” I smile. I can feel the buzz bubbling up from inside, pleading to break through the surface. But, I wanted to wait until we were officially completed. “How can I help?”

“If you want to start by cutting up some strips of metal that’ll help,” Hiccup responds. “Think you can handle that?”

I scoff. “Please, a little metal isn’t going to stop me.”

“Uh-huh."

I walk over to the table and lay out some fresh sheets of metal. I grab the hacksaw from below and bring it down onto the metal, hoping to make some shallow cuts. However, after I make the first cut, the piece comes out looking jagged and bent. I grunt and toss it aside.

“Hey, how’s it going over there?” Hiccup sarcastically asks, sensing my annoyance.

“Just fine, thanks for asking!”

“A little metal isn’t going to stop you, eh?"

“I have a sprained wrist!”

“Oh, please, you haven’t been complaining about it at all ever since it happened.”

“Well, I’d like to see you try and cut this!”

Hiccup smiles cockily and walks over to my table. He takes the hacksaw from out of my hands and cuts the metal. Once he’s done, it comes out looking clean and perfectly shaped.

Of course, he gets it right...he’s been an apprentice ever since he was old enough to walk.

I huff and look away. “Yeah, well, some of us don’t have years of experience ahead of us.”

“Careful there, Hilde, you’re beginning to sound a lot like Snotlout.”

“Now that’s just cruel!”

Hiccup laughs. “C’mon, I’ll help you,” He hands the hacksaw back to me and lays another sheet of metal in front of me. “It’s really not that hard after the first couple of times.”

I sigh. “This is going to be a looooong night.”

o~o~o~o~o

Indeed it was a long night. By the time the morning light began to peek its way through the horizon, my fingers were beginning to feel prickly and sore, and I had to rewrap my wrist a couple of times throughout the night. Nonetheless, Hiccup and I were able to craft an entirely new fin for Toothless. I couldn’t complain about being in pain or sleep-deprived when I knew that the Night Fury needed this fin in order to survive. Plus, it was interesting to learn more about Hiccup’s job, to witness all of the work that went behind making our weapons. While the rest of us were out fighting and hunting, Hiccup was doing the grunt work, making it easier for us to be Vikings. Why no one else has ever come around to appreciate it is beyond me...it was a complete refusal to perspective.

Perspective, I’ve concluded, is a tricky thing. It’s so easy to just plug your ears and minimize yourself from this world. In some cases, it’s better to just melt yourself away into the depths of your mind. But, in very few cases, it’s a leap of faith. Sometimes, on very rare occasions, it pays off for an entire lifetime. And the only way you can ever tell is if you find yourself feeling something that you have never felt before.

And one can only hope that what I’ve been feeling like I’m being chased or spiraling away into an entirely different dimension, is the one in a million that not only impacts my life, or Hiccup’s life, but others too.

I breathe out a huge sigh and walk over to our completed fin and admire its completion. It looked good and it seems sturdy enough, but the only way to really tell is if we attempt to put it on Toothless….which, needless to say, is really risky. But, Hiccup stepped out earlier this morning, claiming that he had an idea, and left without another word. I’ve been waiting for him to return, but he’s been gone for a long while. I stare at the fin once more and decide to roll it up, so it’d be easier to carry once we head off back into the cove.

Just then, Hiccup returns, dragging behind him a large, wooden basket that was nearly the size of my torso. He centers it in front of him and looks at me with an amused smile.

I give him a blank stare. “Um...what’s in it?”

“Fish,” he simply answers. “Don’t worry, it’s not for us.” 

“Well, why did you—”

“C’mon,” Hiccup grabs hold of the tail fin from my hands. “Grab the basket and let's head out. I’ll explain everything on the way.”


	9. Chapter 9

It wasn’t long before Hiccup and I found ourselves back at the cove, its familiarities greeting us like an old friend. I continue to drag the large basket of fish behind me as Hiccup walks up to the Night Fury, its prosthetic fin tucked under Hiccup’s arm.

“Heey Toothless,” Hiccup greets. He gestures to the basket of fish in my hands. “Hilde and I brought breakfast. I hope you’re hungry.”

With that, I topple the basket over, spilling its fishy contents onto the grass. The stench immediately fills the air, causing me to cough. “Ick...that’s disgusting…”

Hiccup nods in agreement. “Yeah..but, hey, we’ve got some salmon, some nice Icelandic cod, and a whole smoked eel!”

Toothless begin poking through the pile of fish but, upon hearing about the eel, his ears point backward and his eyes narrow. Confused, Hiccup holds up the long, black and yellow striped eel and dangles it in front of Toothless. The dragon growls and roars in fear at the sight of it, causing Hiccup to tense up.

“Okay, okay, okay!” I speak up. “No eel. Not now and not ever!”

“Yeah,” Hiccup says and tosses the eel inside the water, completely out of sight. “I don’t really like eel either.”

I nod my head and give Hiccup the go-ahead to insert the fin onto Toothless. Hiccup catches my signal and slowly walks over behind the dragon and quickly busies himself to work. Meanwhile, I stay upfront, trying my best to distract Toothless from what we were trying to do.

I drop to my knees, reach inside the basket and pull out a tuna fish. “Do you like this one, buddy?”

Toothless answers my question by snatching it out of my hand and swallowing it in one swift motion.

I chuckle. “So it’s just eel then, huh? Wonder what it is about it that you don’t like…”

Right before my eyes, Toothless begins scooping up a mouthful of all the fishes and swallows them whole. Gulp after gulp, the seemingly large pile of dead fishes starts to disappear.

I scoop up a couple of fishes and try to set them out of his reach. “Hey, don’t eat too fast or else you might get yourself sick.”

The dragon huffs at me and simply knocks me out of the way, stealing all of the fishes away from me.

“Hmf,” I grunt. “You pig,”

Toothless shoots me an amused look. He sticks his head inside the large in search of some more fishes.

“C’mon….c’mon...” I hear Hiccup uttering from behind. I peer over and see that he has planted himself on top of the dragon tail, facing away from me.

“Hiccup?” I call out, but I try to not draw too much attention to myself. “You almost done?”

“Yeah, yeah, just give me a sec, Hilde,” Hiccup answers. “I just have to secure this.”

“Okay, but we’re all out of fish.”

“Two seconds. Just two seconds, okay?”

I sigh in frustration. I shake my head and look back at Toothless, who now has the basket over his head during his search for more fishes to feast on. I grin at the sight until the basket drops from his head, exposing the dragon’s wide eyes in what appeared to be realization. Toothless squints his eyes in confusion and starts to wiggle his tail around, no doubt feeling the weight of a particular 15-year-old boy on top of him.

Uh-oh.

Toothless drops his wings to the floor, his mouth slightly ajar, and his eyes wide open once more in utter hopefulness. Moments later, he slowly raises his wings up…

Double uh-oh.

“Hiccup, get off the tail,” I command, my heart going thrice its rhythm. “Get off the tail, now.”

“Hilde, shhh, just—”

“No. Now. Hiccup he’s about to—”

“It’s okay,” he says. “Okay...okay...there. That’s not too bad. It works.”

“Hiccup!”

“What?”

Too late. Toothless stretches backward on his hind legs, preparing himself for takeoff.

“Toothless, no!” I jolt forward without thinking, grasping onto the reptile’s neck in a stupid attempt to refrain it from taking off.

A teenage girl going against a full-sized dragon...geez, I wonder who will win? Not.

“TOOTHLESS!” I screech out as I feel my feet no longer touching the ground. The wind slaps me on both sides of my cheeks and my hair wildly scratches me against my neck. I cling on for dear life, my arms wring tightly around the dragon’s neck as my feet helplessly kick in the air.

“Hilde!!” I hear Hiccup calling my name. When I look behind the dragon, I see him hanging onto his tail, using both of his arms and legs as support. “Don’t let go!”

“Why in ODIN’S NAME would I let go?!?” My heart was throbbing. My head was throbbing. My arms and legs were throbbing. Every part of my body felt like it was going to burst and disintegrate into nothing but a pile of ash. Clenching my teeth, I hoist my legs up and, with every fiber and strength of my being, I heave myself up onto Toothless. I grip onto the dragon’s scale and wrap my legs up on his neck and pull up into an upright position so now I was directly on top of Toothless’s neck, almost as if I was riding him.

The wind pushes back against my body, so I wrap my arms and legs around the dragon’s neck. I no longer felt like I would slip or fall in a way that I wouldn’t like. I almost felt safe.

Almost.

Without any warning, Toothless begins to shift, dropping us down to the ground and aiming us towards a large rock.

“AHHHH!” I scream, feeling the drop rise up into my stomach.

“Whoa! No! No! No!” Hiccup hollers.

“Hiccup!?” I call out fearfully. “We’re gonna crash!”

“No, we’re not!”

I hear and feel a sudden shift in the dragon’s fin. We dodge the large and we shoot back up towards the sky, evening out and coasting along.

“Oh, my— it’s working!” Hiccup cheers. “Yes! Yes, I did it!”

I turn around to look back at him, still clutching onto the tail and holding the prosthetic fin. “You did it?!?”

“Me and my lovely sidekick!”

“That's what I thought, Horrendous!”

I can’t see his face, but I know he’s doing that goofy grin that he always does. As an answer, he shifts the prosthetic fin over, thus changing the direction of the dragon.

So, that’s how it works. Toothless can’t fly without someone holding onto the prosthetic….

Toothless flies back down into the cove, gliding just above the water.

“Woohoo! This is amazing!” I find myself finally releasing both of my hands from Toothless’s neck and waving them through the air. I close my eyes and try to picture myself actually flying and soaring up onto the clouds...I can almost feel the sensation just for a little bit...I can almost see it…

And then I’m flung into the water. Along with Hiccup. Fun.

“AHHHHHGHHH!” Hiccup and I both scream as we’re immersed into the icy water, completely drenching ourselves.

The water blurs my vision and I had to cough up some water before I could finally focus my vision and mind back onto my surroundings. When I look up at the sky again, the Night Fury has crashed into the water himself, falling several feet away from us.

Guess he figured out that he wasn’t ready to fly solo yet.

I laugh, despite my circumstances. I see Hiccup swimming over towards me, but I couldn’t contain the giggles that were making its way outside of my mouth. It all could’ve been a mixture of nervous and happy giggles, but I knew for sure that I had quite the adrenaline rush.

“Hilde,” Hiccup speaks up when he gets closer to me. “Are you okay—oof!”

I throw my arms around Hiccup’s neck, nearly knocking my chin against his jaw. I release him, staring at him with a wide smile. “Hiccup! That was amazing! Did you see me up there?! I SAT on top of a dragon and—and you—you….” I drift off, remembering his standoffish attitude from before, and hit him in the arm. “You!”

“Ow!” He exclaims as he tenderly rubs his arm. “What—what just changed?”

“I told you to get off of his tail, didn’t I?” I splash water in his direction.

Hiccup flashes me a sheepish expression. “I’m sorry I brushed you off. I just wanted to make sure that we got it right.”

I sigh. “I know and I know it’s not a big deal. It’s just…. I can deal with Snotlout and my father dismissing me but….I’d like to think that the same didn’t apply to you.”

“Hilde,” Hiccup places a delicate hand on my shoulder. “You don’t ever have to worry about me ignoring you. Besides, how could I ignore someone that’s so stubborn?”

I laugh. “Well, I can’t argue with you there. That’s probably why Snotlout hates keeping me in his shadow everywhere he goes. But, I’m making things easier on him.”

“How?”

“I’m giving him the cold shoulder,” I respond, swaying my hand above the water. “Father doesn’t want us fighting anymore and since Snotlout obviously hates my guts, I decided to shun him. He doesn’t need to worry about me anymore.”

Hiccup furrows his eyebrows. “That’s not what I saw when he pushed you out of the way from that Gronckle—”

“He would’ve done that for anyone.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Positive. He’s an absolute jerkface, but he’s not evil.”

“Okay, but I see him keeping a watchful eye on you. Especially when you’re away from the rest of the group.”

“He’s always looking for a way to stick his nose into my business,” I merely shrug. “He’s just trying to find a way to belittle me. Thor knows what he’d do if he finds out about Toothless…”

Hiccup awkwardly pats me on my shoulder once more. “So, you were riding that dragon, eh?”

“Yeah...why?” I ask, sensing an idea formulating in his head.

“Well, that gives me an idea on our next project,” Hiccup smiles. The black and yellow striped eel from earlier floats near us and, without hesitation, he snatches it up from the water and places it inside his vest. “But, first, we have Dragon Training to get to.”


	10. Chapter 10

Boom.

The large, wooden doors in front of us burst open with sparks of flame projecting out. The entire Dragon Training arena was quickly filled with obscure, green fog. It, at first, tickled and danced around my toes before making its way up to my waist and then surrounding my entire body. I could barely see what was in front of me.

Along with the other teen Vikings, I clutch my water bucket closer to me. It was the only defense we had against the Hideous Zippleback.

“Now, a wet dragon can’t light its fire,” Gobber informs us. He paces backward, trying to avoid getting caught up in the fog. “The Hideous Zippleback is extra tricky. One head breathes gas, the other head lights it. Your job is to know which is which.”

I breathe out and back up into the fog, keeping my eyes peeled for any sign of danger. Suddenly, I run smack into a hard object. My stomach pinches, thinking it’s one of the heads of the Hideous Zippleback until I hear a soft voice speak up.

“Hilde?” Fishlegs asks. “Did you see it?”

“No,” I respond and turn around to face him. Hiccup stood next to him, giving me a cautious look. “We need to look out for each other.”

Fishlegs nods in agreement. “We’ll watch you if you watch ours..”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Fishlegs, Hiccup and I stand back to back as we continue to keep a lookout for the two-headed dragon. Moments pass before Fishlegs begins mumbling to himself, but it was loud enough for Hiccup and I to both hear. “Razor-sharp, serrated teeth that inject venom for pre-digestion. Prefers ambush attack by crushing its victims—”

“Will you please stop that?” Hiccup snaps at him.

“Sorry…” Fishlegs mutters.

“Panicking doesn’t solve anything,” I say in a hushed tone. “Sometimes, there isn’t any time for thinking.”

“So, what, should I be more like your brother?” Fishlegs asks, narrowing his eyes, daring for me to disagree.

“Don’t mock me,” I grumble.

We hear a sudden cry through the fog and then Tuffnut comes running out past us.

“OH, I’M HURT! I AM VERY MUCH HURT!” He screams and clutches his face as he staggers past us.

“Chances of survival are dwindling into single-digits now,” Fishlegs says. I flash him an annoyed look and he raises his hands in surrender. “I’m just saying…”

I roll my eyes and turn away from him. Fishlegs is nice and extremely sweet, but in the heat of battle, the poor boy clams up. However….he did help me out back when the Deadly Nadder had me up on top of the walls, so maybe I underestimate him from time to time.

“Hilde, look!” Hiccup steps over towards me.

I peer over and notice one of the heads of the Hideous Zippleback poking out from the misty, green fog. I try to step away from it, but the dragon snakes its way towards me.

“Oh, no….” I murmur. “Do I ever catch a break?”

The dragon leans in closer to me and bears its razor-sharp teeth at me, a bit of green gas escaping from the corner of its mouth. Well, at least Fishlegs wasn’t lying about the teeth part…

But, it was also the wrong head and I had no idea how to act. Hiccup was the one that had the eel on him and—

“Hey!” Fishlegs hollers from a few feet away. “You leave her alone!"

Fishlegs abruptly knocks me to my side, nearly knocking the bucket of water out of my hand. He faces the dragon and, without any shred of doubt, throws his own bucket of water at it.

“Fishlegs, wait!” I try to step in.

But, what’s done was done. The dragon angrily sputters its green fog in Fishlegs face, the realization finally dawning upon him as he lets out a nervous chuckle. “Oh. Wrong head.”

The dragon head sprays a large stream of its fog out and Fishlegs runs away, screaming with his arms flailing in the air.

“Fishlegs!” Gobber says in shock.

The head focuses its attention on Hiccup now and, finally, the other head of the Hideous Zippleback is in sight. It spits out crackled, electrical sparks as it glares down at Hiccup.

Bingo.

“Now, Hiccup!” Gobber encourages.

Hiccup throws his bucket at the other head that spits out sparks, but his aim didn’t reach high enough and misses it completely.

“Oh, come on!” He says, exasperated.

The two-headed dragon growls and pounces, reaching Hiccup at his eye-level now. Hiccup falls backward, spilling the rest of his bucket of water onto the ground. The dragon snarls and exposes its wings in an attempt to look intimidating.

“Hiccup!” Gobber begins running over to him, but I stop him by putting a hand on his shoulder. I could feel that familiar tension rising into the air, but everyone needed to trust Hiccup right now. He didn’t need saving this time.

I trust him.

Hiccup stands up and waves his hands at the dragon. “Back! Back! Back! BACK!” The dragons cower at this gesture, but they obediently listen to him.

Nobody could see my face, but I was smiling. It’s working. Just like he predicted.

“Now, don’t make me tell you again!” Hiccup says in a firm tone.

I look around and see the shocked and flabbergasted look on everyone’s face. Yet, I was beaming. Like a madman.

“Yes, that’s right!” Hiccup says as the dragon continues to back up further into the cage. “Back into your cage. Now think about what you’ve done.” He leans in and I see his arm reaching his fur vest. While others might not have thought much by it, I knew exactly what he was doing—the eel from earlier was, without a doubt, in the Hideous Zippleback’s cage as punishment.

Hiccup shuts the door to the cage before anybody had a chance to investigate. He casually turns around and pretends to not be fazed at all by everyone’s shocked stance as if they hadn't just witnessed the boy, who didn’t even know how to pick up a shield properly, instruct a two-headed dragon back into a cage. And they listened.

“Okay, so are we done?” Hiccup asks, trying to sound relaxed and unfazed, but knew people were going to start asking questions if he didn’t leave soon enough. “Because I’ve got some things I need to, uh…” Hiccup looks over to me for help. “...Um, Hilde? Do you—”

“Yep!” I jog over to him, matching his gait as we exit the arena. “We should—”

“Yep!” Hiccup grabs me by the forearm and begins backing out. “I’ll….see-see you tomorrow!”

It isn’t until we’re out of earshot from everyone before Hiccup speaks to me normally again. “You up for making a saddle?”

“You know it, Horrendous.”

We work on the saddle until nightfall and I couldn’t shake the thrill, the topsy-turvy feeling I had inside of me. I can’t place my finger on it exactly, but I knew something big was happening here. And I was so excited for it.


	11. Chapter 11

I can’t remember a time where my fingers haven’t been moving in the past a week. Training with Toothless and Hiccup has been on my mind 24/7. Every day we’ve been discovering new things, one thing after the other.

When Hiccup and I created the saddle for our beloved Night Fury, it was a process just to strap the dang piece of equipment onto him. But, after lots of wrestling and tugging, it worked out and we (more so Hiccup) have been modifying it ever since. Like, during the first flight after Hiccup and I took turns flying Toothless, he was shaking us off easily every time we were hovering more than ten feet off the ground, so Hiccup attached a cord that hooked from our belt and onto the saddle that was strapped on Toothless.

There was still a lot of room for improvement though. Although we could fly Toothless, he still had too much freedom when it came to which direction he could go to in the skies. So, I can proudly say that I had the fantastic idea to attach a rope from the prosthetic fin to the rider. Which worked out perfectly, if I do say so myself. This also leads to the discovery of Dragon Nip. One day, when I was riding Toothless, I tugged on the rope that was attached to his fin, and it sent him crashing down onto a field of grass. I toppled into the soft ground, but I managed to slowly stumble onto own two feet.

“You good?” Hiccup asked as he came jogging over. We each made it a point to supervise the other when they flew Toothless. Just for extra precaution.

“Yeah,” I replied. I turned around to check on Toothless, but what I saw before me was the last thing I expected: he was rolling around in the grass, almost purring in delight, and having the time of his life.

“Woah…” Hiccup said.

“One of the kryptonite to the Great and Powerful Night Fury is grass? This is their Dragon Nip?” I placed my hands on my hips.

“Not just to the Night Fury though,” Hiccup bent down and plucked a piece of it off the ground. “Hopefully to every single dragon.”

The next day was Dragon Training and Hiccup was standing off to the side of the arena, examining the piece of grass in his hands as he watched the rest of the teens try and take down a Gronckle. When it came speeding towards him, Hiccup stuck the grass out towards its snout, and it instantly rolled over to its side in complete delight.

At least that’s the version Hiccup told me. I wasn’t there to witness it myself.

Ever since Hiccup’s infamous encounter with the Hideous Zippleback, we promised each other to abstain from physically harming dragons, even during training. I even started skipping training completely so I could spend more time with Toothless. I just didn’t see a point in showing up to it if I didn’t agree with hurting dragons anymore. Hiccup, on the other hand, would at least show up to training every single time even if he didn’t partake in any physical battles with the dragons themselves. Besides, new discoveries that we were finding out with Toothless needed to be tested on the other dragons in the arena and Hiccup handled that part while I watched over Toothless. Plus, people would ask questions if both of us stopped showing up to training so Hiccup’s presence kind of ward off suspicion. But people—yes, Astrid and Snotlout—were already getting skeptical whenever Hiccup and I trek off somewhere together. Hiccup told me that, one time after training, Snotlout cornered him and demanded to know where I was.

Ugh.

Of course, my brother and I’s relationship is still rocky. It’s not like I’m trying to have an isolated relationship with him. Father was always absent and our Mother died when were young, so you would think that we’d have a closer relationship but it’s the exact opposite. Snotlout and I have never been one to open up to each other and talk about our feelings. Yes, we both learned how to fight together, but it’s not like we were both dressing each other's wounds in the midst of it. We don’t console each other and, when we do talk, it’s because we literally have to. I don’t expect him to be the brother that holds my hand when I cry over my first heartbreak and he’s certainly not coming up to me when Father is making him feel insecure. I’ve accepted that reality a long time ago, but it still hurts me in small places. I’ve grown so used to this type of affection that it weirdly makes it better if we just continue to treat each other like strangers. When Snotlout does anything that shows even a small ounce of care, it makes me irritated. If you understand that, I applaud you. Because I certainly don’t.

Ah, and of course Astrid wasn’t letting up. Even though I haven’t been attending training, I could see her face brewing with actual fumes whenever Hiccup walked through the village or Meade Hall for supper. While everyone else crowded around him, asking how he suddenly became so good and how they’ve never seen anything like this before, Astrid made it a point to never give him any gratitude.

We also had a suuuuuper close call the other night.

While Hiccup was practicing new tail positions with Toothless, the rope snapped and bent the safety hook, leaving Hiccup and the dragon attached to one another.

“Oh, great...” Hiccup muttered sarcastically, tugging onto the leather cord.

“Can you fix it?” I asked, fear coiling up in the pit of my stomach.

“Yes,” he answered. “But not without the correct tools—”

“—Which are back in the village. Yeah, I had a feeling you were going to say that.”

o~o~o~o~o

We waited until darkness rolled around before we quietly snuck into the village. There were a few scattered civilians wandering around but they paid little to no attention to us as we made our way to the blacksmith shop, dragging Toothless behind us. When we finally found ourselves in the confided shop, we began scrambling for the necessary tools and got set to work.

“Nice and quiet, just like we talked about, okay?” I whispered.

“Yeah—”

Clang! Toothless knocked over a bucket.

“Hiccup?” Astrid’s muffled voice spoke up from outside of the shop. “Are you in there?”

“Oh no...” Hiccup facepalms himself.

“I’ll distract! Get yourself unattached!” I hurriedly rushed out of the shop from the back. I tiptoed around until I see Astrid’s light blonde hair piercing through the stark contrast of the night.

“Hiccup?” Astrid called out again.

“Astrid!” My voice choked before I had a chance to register any thoughts into my brain. “How, um, how’s it going?”

“Hilde,” she turned towards me with her arms folded in front of me. “What’re you doing here?”

“I heard a noise,” I said, shuffling my feet. “I was just heading towards my house.”

“A noise,” Astrid repeated. “I heard it too.”

“Well, I just came to investigate, but I couldn’t find anything,” I was rambling at this point. “I think I’m just gonna head on home now and you should too, ‘cause you never know what you’ll find at this time of night so I think it’ll be reeeeaaally beneficial for the both of us if we—”

“Stop,” she commanded. “You never answered my question.”

“I did answer—”

“No, what are you doing out here? At this time of night? I know you’re not getting any extra training in considering you stopped showing up to Dragon Training. Yeah, don’t think I didn’t notice.”

My face shrunk. “Uh…”

“Look, I know Snotlout gives you a hard time, but you’re a solid fighter and you’d make a really great asset. So...what’s going on with you?”

“Well….” I looked down on the ground. “That’s the thing….my brother and I...we aren’t on the best terms and sometimes I think it’s easier if I just stay out of the way.”

“Oh….” Astrid trailed off. “But that’s still no excuse—”

“I’ve just been doing my own thing. I’m...teaching myself...some new things. And that’s what I was doing just now.”

“So you’re training? On your own terms?” She asked.

“Well, yeah.”

“Okay,” Astrid unfolded her arms and sighed. “Well, maybe it’s for the best. It’s not like Dragon Training has been a joy ride lately.”

“What do you mean?” I asked even though I knew what she was talking about.

“Hiccup,” his name alone made Astrid clench her fists together. “First it was the Hideous Zippleback. Then, he makes a Sandwraith and Deadly Nadder fall to his feet. Just the other day he did this weird light-trick thingy to lure a Terrible Terror back to its cage,”

I ghostly smiled at that last one. I remembered it. I entertained Toothless for hours on end with that one.

“None of it adds up,” Astrid shook her head in frustration. “I just don’t understand how he became so...good."

A loud clatter echoed from behind the blacksmith doors followed by a small voice going shhh!

Yup, sounds about right.

“Did you hear that?” Astrid ears perked up and immediately followed suit to the noise. I leaped forward and tried to stop her but, alas, she bustled through the wooden doors and began peering around the dark vacancy.

“What’re you doing?” I questioned.

“I swear I heard something…”

My eyes trailed off onto the side and up at the sky, and the tension in my muscles visibly relax when I see a scrawny kid on top of a black Night Fury taking off in the distance. “What’re you talking about? I didn’t hear anything.”


	12. Chapter 12

The ceiling in my room was starting to form a crack in the corner. I shut my eyes once more and raise a limp hand above my head to restore blood flow. Stale, yellow sunlight was slowly creeping its way into my room and I know that it’s time to get up.

Okay, count to ten, and you’re going to roll yourself out of bed. One...two...three...four—

“There you are!”

I let out of a yelp and I try to scramble onto my own two feet, but I instead nosedive straight onto the floor. “You’re an idiot,” I groan.

“She speaks! You’re finally talking to me!”

I roll my eyes and rub my wrists—still tender from the fall and from the punch, but definitely wasn’t an issue anymore. “Whatever…”

Snotlout leans against my doorway, his eyes narrowed. “Figured I’d catch you bright and early before you sneak off to—-wherever it is you sneak off to.”

I stand up and refuse to make eye contact. “Uh-huh.”

“So? Care to elaborate?”

“Nah, not really.” I grab my gauntlets and belt off from the table beside my bed.

He grumbles. “You do realize that you can’t keep disappearing like this, right? You’re going to have to let up eventually,”

I turn my back towards him and bite my lip. He wasn’t wrong. There’s no possible way Toothless can stay a secret forever. But, there also had to be another solution that didn’t involve the entire village wanting to kill him...I couldn’t bear the thought of anything at all happening to Toothless. I would easily accept any cruelness intended towards to him to come my way.

And I know Hiccup would do the same as well.

I hear Snotlout slowly walking up to me, even though I was still turned away from him. “Either tell me what’s going on right now, or I’ll—”

“Or what?” I challenge. “Are you going to follow me?”

“I could...or I could just tell Dad.”

“Then I’ll lie,” I whip around. “I’ll just say that you’re always looking for a way to get me in trouble so you fabricate stories to get people mad at me. Then, it’ll be both of us on the line. It’s your word against mine and he won’t believe it coming from you.”

Snotlout opens his mouth to say something else, but I stalk out of the room and head outside. A rush of air fills my lungs up and I can finally breathe again.

o~o~o~o~o

“Wow, that bad, huh?” Hiccup asks. We were both sprawled out on the patch of grass in front of the stream that runs through the cove, and Toothless was nestled in the corner, eating his morning fish, and trying to rest before he goes for a flight today.

I nod, pick up a stick, and start breaking it piece by piece. “Yeah, he’s definitely getting agitated.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” Hiccup says. “Snotlout is just mad that you know something that he doesn’t know.”

“Has he talked to you at all?”

“No, but I have a feeling that he’s more focused on you.”

“What do you mean?”

He shrugs. “I don't know. I just have a feeling that he wouldn’t be so invested in—” Hiccup gestures his hands out to our surroundings. “—this if it was just me trying to make this all work. He’s impressed by what he sees me doing in the ring, but as soon as you get thrown in the picture, he starts asking questions.”

“Don’t phrase things like that,” I respond. “He just likes to humiliate me.”

Hiccup lets out a huge sigh. “Hilde, why are you so convinced that he’s only doing things to hurt you? You’re right, he is a jerkface, but maybe he actually cares about you?”

I shake my head. “Why would he care about me? He has never made an attempt to have a good relationship with me.”

“Maybe because you haven’t made that attempt.”

“Why are you defending him? Snotlout picks on you all the time and I’m the one that defends you.”

“Trust me, I’m not trying to defend him,” Hiccup angles himself towards me. “I’m just trying to make you look at things from a new angle.”

I scoff. “Yeah, well, I could say the same thing about your Dad. Maybe instead of being so fixated on my relationship with Snotlout, you should focus more on how to fix your own fractured relationships.”

Hiccup tucks his chin in and turns away from me. He stands up from his sitting position and keeps his face shielded away from me. “Wow. So, you can be harsh.”

Guilt immediately pinches away at me. “Hiccup, I—”

“No, no, my mistake. I overstepped my boundaries. Should’ve known better.”

“You didn’t overstep anything,” I swifty stand up and try to make eye contact with him. “It’s my fault. Hot headedness runs in the family, you know that, right?"

Hiccup lets out a dry chuckle. “Yeah, boy, do I know that.”

I gingerly touch his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Hiccup.”

He pauses. Moments pass before he faces towards me again. My hand is still touching his shoulder. Hiccup grabs hold of it and gives it a small, reassuring squeeze. “I know you are. But, maybe we should go take Toothless on a flight now.”

I nod. “Maybe you should just go. I think I’m gonna sit this one out.”

Hiccup furrows his eyebrows. “Are you sure?

“Yeah, I should hang back here. I’ve been disappearing too much lately.”

“Oh okay. Yeah, I guess you have a point.”

“We’ll meet up later today,” I finally release my hand from his and begin to walk backwards out of the cove. “You can tell me all about how this flight goes.”

Hiccup smiles. “Okay. Come back here around dusk.”

“Sounds like a plan,” I smile back. “Don’t forget your cheat sheet!”

“Pfft, why would I need a cheat sheet when I have my brain?!”

I can't shake the smile off my face the whole way home.


	13. Chapter 13

chewed slowly and quietly on my potatoes from Medea Hall, trying my best to absorb and take in all of my surroundings. Its been awhile since I’ve been able to do that—not have to worry about Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C...I can just sit with what I have. For now.

A while back, I discovered a hidden path that snaked behind Berk, and whenever I felt things wearing down on me, I would come here where nobody would disturb me. More importantly, I wouldn’t be found unless I wanted to be found.

I sigh and take another bite from my potatoes, letting it carefully roll back on my tongue and down my throat.

I shouldn’t have snapped at Hiccup. I don’t know why I do that. He’s been more than nice to me throughout this entire—whatever you want to call it...journey, perhaps? I can never justify the snippy moods I get into from time to time. In the heat of the moment—I can. But, reflecting back on it now, I want to punch myself right in the face.

Hiccup had a point too. This entire time I’ve casted blame on others, but maybe I’m just the reason why everything seems to get spoiled in my life. I’m such a whiner—I don’t blame anyone that doesn’t ever try and get to know me. If I met myself, would I give myself the time of day?

“Ugh!” I pound my fists against the ground, slipping my fingers into the soil and prodding around.

Why am I thinking such trivial thoughts? There are bigger problems happening around me. Between Toothless and the war that our parents—including my own father— are fighting, I should be training myself. Not sitting here, feeling sorry for myself, like some kind of ungrateful child.

“You need to be extra smart about things…” Astrid’s voice begins playing through my mind.

Maybe Snotlout wasn’t the nicest oldest brother. Maybe he wasn’t holding my hand and drying my tears. Maybe he’ll never do that for as long as I live. But, he’s blood, and I have to believe that he’ll genuinely never want to see me scorned by half of Berk if Toothless ever got discovered…

It’s a small, flicker of hope. But it’s enough to make a small part of me almost want to tell him everything.

I shudder. Actually shudder. I can’t bring myself to do it...just the thought of it makes me want hurl from nerves. I want to believe that he’ll understand—I want to bet everything I have on it—but that’s a reality that I can’t confront just yet. Just yet though…

I sigh and pop the last piece of potato in my mouth. The morning is almost over now. Hopefully Hiccup has taken Toothless out by now and all is going okay. I don’t have too many worries though since Hiccup has been crafting that cheat sheet for a while now. He’s so smart, so inventive, resourceful…

Woah.

Am I just now starting to notice how...charming he is?

Woah.

I need to get my priorities in order. I need an escape. Not only for everyone and everything else, but for myself. Not just this little spot right here that I have marked behind Berk. Something larger than this. I don’t even know what my priorities are, let alone where they stand. What do I want? What and who do I want to be?

Most importantly, how do I get there without feeling like I’m asking for too much?

I spring up from the ground, shaking my hands out against my thighs. I was beginning to get too suffocated in my deep thoughts. I need go for a walk. Or get some more rest. Or punch someone.

I trudge back to the village, my head low, not really thinking of anything in particular. Just me, myself, and my empty thoughts. But, call it muscle memory from this past week or whatever, I find myself back in the blacksmith shop. The tools and equipments...what used to be considered as foreign objects to me are now things that I can actually use with my own hands.

I take out a sheet of metal, laying it flat on the wooden table.

“Think you’re going to have trouble cutting that?” I can hear Hiccup’s voice echoing in my head.

I scoff. “Oh, Hiccup..”

“Hilde?”

I jolt, whirling around, bumping my knee against the wooden table in the process. “Agh!”

“Hilde!” Fish legs exclaims. “Are you okay?”

Dull pain ripples through my leg, partially throbbing beneath my dark brown leggings. “Yeah totally fine. Sorry, you just startled me.”

Fishlegs wanders inside the shop. He scopes out the entire room. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here...I came by to pick up one of my weapons. Gobber was working on it and he said it’d be ready by this time today so...here I am, heh.”

“Oh..” I’m still kind of unaware and thrown off from this entire situation. “I have no idea about that. It’s probably around here somewhere though.”

“Yeah, probably,” Fishlegs cocks his head to the side. His curiosity was beginning to peak. “What were you doing here?”

“I was, um, looking for my Flashcut sword,” I reply. “I’ve been having trouble locating it.”

His eyes light up. “Oh, Snotlout has been using it for the past couple of days during Dragon Training.”

What? “Oh, well, I did not know that,”

“I can only assume that he’d claim it since it appeared like you stopped using it…”

“Yeah, that’ll probably do it.”

I know that I technically can’t be angry because I did stop using my Flashcut sword a lot after Toothless became a central part in my everyday orbit, but come on. Snotlout had his own weapon and that sword was mine. He gave it to me. (Yeah, it was by force but it still counts!)

“Where have you been lately?” Fishlegs asks. “I’ve missed you—Whoops, sorry! I-I mean w-we’ve missed you!”

I chuckle. “I’ve just been taking some down time, figuring out things at my own pace. I’ve kinda been taking a different kind of training.”

Fishlegs nods as if he fully understands and connects with what I’m saying “I think I know what you’re trying to say,”

“You do?”

“Yeah, I mean, Dragon Training can get kind of intense.”

“It can be.”

“Do you think you’ll be coming back anytime soon?”

I shove the tip of my boot against the ground and twist it. “I actually haven’t given it much thought.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” I twist my boot against the ground some more. "I think I just want to become more secure in my abilities.”

Fishleg’s face marginally falls. “But, you’re already pretty great where you’re at.”

I tightly smile. “Thanks, Fishlegs.”

“You should know that,” he continues. “Like one would not know how muscular you are just by looking at you, but once you start throwing your punches, kicks, when you fight with your sword, you become a machine.”

I smile again. “You’re too sweet.”

“Do you remember that time you kicked me in the groin when you were seven?”

“Yeah,” I laugh. “Sorry about that. I don’t even remember why I kicked you. It was over some sort of argument about—something.”

“I don’t either,” Fishlegs admits. “But...I’ve always liked that about you. No matter what, you fought for what you believed in...even if you had to get a little handsy in the process.”

I laugh again, shaking my head. When I look up at Fishlegs again, his pale blue eyes are shyly staring right at me. I flash him a small grin, walk forward, and wrap my arms around him. I can hear him “hm” in surprise, but he doesn’t hesitate to give me a big hug right back. “You’re a really great guy, Fishlegs.”

“Thanks, Hilde,” Fishlegs quietly answers. "Hilde,...I think you should know that I—”

“I know, Fishlegs,” I pull back from our hug but I still keep my hands firmly placed on his chest. “But, I still have things that I need to figure out.”

He nods. “Okay. If you need a friend...I’m your guy.”

“Noted. If you need a friend...I’m you girl.”

Fishlegs nods again. He backs away and turns to exit from the shop. “I’ll just tell Gobber that I’ll come by later to pick up my other weapons,”

“Okay. I can also tell Gobber that you stopped by if I see him around later.”

“Thanks Hilde,” Fishlegs says appreciatively. “I hope you become really secure soon enough.”

“Me too.”

Fishlegs smiles once more before finally leaving the shop. It’s quiet for a few more moments as I allow a new feeling enter and surge through my entire body. I clench and unclench my fists.

“You’re going to have to let up eventually…”

I walk over to the sheet of metal. I stare at it, walk over to the tool bench, grab some items, and bring it back to the table. After that, I start a fire and begin to cut up some metal.

I have work to do.


	14. Chapter 14

I know I said that I’ve disappeared too much lately, but that was before I decided to disappear almost all day in the blacksmith shop. But I managed to get done with what I wanted to get done so I decided that it was worth it.

Smiling, I put the two finished products into the pouch on my belt and check outside—Hiccup should be back by now.

Good. Just in time.

I walk back to the woods and head to the cove with my head staying higher than usual. I felt a little more light and airy, like I was walking on clouds. When I get there, I see the dynamic duo—Toothless and Hiccup. Hiccup was petting and scratching Toothless, his back turned away from me so he didn’t immediately sense my presence.

“How’d it go?” I ask with my hand hovering over my pouch.

Hiccup jumps a little bit but turns around and grins at me, but I gasp when I see that his face looked slightly burned with black fumes and his hair was singed back. “Hey, Hilde—”

“Hiccup!” I leap over to him. “What happened?”

“Oh, trust me, this is nothing,” Hiccup touches a hand up to his hair. “We just got a little carried away today.”

“Carried away?” I repeat with my hands on my hips. “What happened to your cheat sheet?”

“Funny story about that…”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah...I may have lost it in the skies.”

I throw my hands up. “Hiccup Horrendous!”

“I know, I know, I know,” Hiccup grabs my forearms and pulls them to down to my side. “Everything was going to plan until the wind picked it up and then everything started spiraling out of control, but I did fly him, Hilde. Even after I lost the sheet, I was still doing it. We both just got excited and then Toothless thought it was a good idea to shoot a fire blast and then fly us both through it,” Hiccup shoots a mean look to Toothless, to which Toothless coos in reply.

My eyes soften. “I’m just glad you made it through in one piece.”

Hiccup nods. His hands are still holding into my forearm. “That’s not all though, Hilde. Toothless and I took a rest on sea stack and we ran into some Terrible Terrors. After I gave one of them some fish, it curled up next to me and didn’t even try to hurt me—it made me realize that everything that we know about these guys is wrong. It’s not just Toothless, it’s the entire species that we’ve been fighting for years, Hilde. I hate to say it, but I don’t how how much longer we can sit with this.”

“You’re absolutely right, Hiccup,” I answer right away. “I’ve actually been thinking the same thing. With Snotlout and everything...I have to believe that people will understand.”

“Yes,” Hiccup excitedly says but then his smile falters. “Wait, what?”

“What?”

“What are we saying?” Hiccup releases me. “No one can know yet. Not only for our sake but for Toothless, too.”

“But, you just said—”

“I know what I just said,” he walks away, looking back towards Toothless. “But, I was getting ahead of myself again. I was actually expecting you to talk me out of it. To tell me was I was going crazy.”

I smirk. “Yeah, well, I guess we’re both going crazy now.”

Hiccup looks at me with wide eyes. “Hilde...we need to think about this.”

“I know we do,” I take a step forward. “I know that there’s a lot at stake right now. But, we can’t dismiss the fact that this could change our world for the greater good.”

“You’re right,” Hiccup agrees and steps towards me. “Maybe we should talk about this?”

I take another step forward. “We could...or we can celebrate that you got through another flight without dying.”

Hiccup cocks his head to the side. “Oh? How you propose we do that?”

I smile and open up my pouch. I reach in and pull out the small, metal object, holding it up and revealing it to Hiccup. “I want to give this to you.”

Hiccup’s mouth opens up into an “o” shape. He carefully extends his one hand out and takes the object from my hands. “Hilde, did-did you—?”

“Make it? Surprisingly, yes, and I’m actually quite proud of it. I also feel bad for snapping earlier so...”

“Oh, don’t even worry about that.”

“But I do. Just accept it. I also wanted to try and make it.”

“Wow…” Hiccup cups his hands together and stares at the silver ring I made for him. It was a simple band, but I attempted to create a woven design around with a metal rim. “Your detail looks great.”

I smile. “I’m glad you like it, Hiccup.”

He tries to insert the ring on his ring finger but it falls loosely around it. Hiccup tries to insert it on his other fingers, even his thumb, but it still doesn’t fit. “Um...I don’t think it’s going to stay on though.”

“Yeah, I’m not that much of an expert yet. Once I finished I realized that I didn’t take into consideration that you have bony fingers.”

“Hey!” He playfully swats at me.

“I’m sorry but it’s true!” I giggle. “So, I made you something else.”

“Really?”

I nod and delve back into my pouch. This time, I pull out a long, silver chain and hand it to him. “Hopefully this will fit around your head.”

“Hilde…” Hiccup unclasps the chain, threads the ring through, and then clasps it together again. He pulls it over his head and then rests the ring in the center of his chest. “I-I don’t know what to say.”

“I mean, you could thank me. For being awesome.”

Hiccup throws me in his arms. He puts his one arm around my waist and the other one was lightly petting my braided hair. “Thank you, Hilde. Not only for being awesome but for sticking through this entire situation with me. You didn’t have to do any of this and you’re still here. The fact that you’re still here means more to me than you can imagine. Just don’t ever not be here, okay? Even if you ever need a break or an out or whatever, don’t disappear. You carry more value than you think and—” Hiccup suddenly stops. He pulls away, his cheeks tinted with blush. “—I’m sorry I started rambling. I-I really appreciate the gift.”

My heart was swelling and my pulse was beating loudly in my ears and beneath my jaw. Without thinking, I lean forward and press a small kiss against Hiccup’s cheek. I linger for a second or two, but when I pull back, Hiccup is staring at me with the corner of his lips curved upward. “Hiccup, that’s one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me...thank you. Dang it, now I’m going to have to make you a million more rings just to make up for that.”

Hiccup bursts out into laughter. “I’m sorry…”

“Don’t ever apologize,” I assure him. “And don’t ever stop being you.”

He smiles at me and begins to rub the back of his neck.

“Alright, enough of this fluff,” I shake my head with a grin and turn away. “I should head back home. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

"Oh, yeah,” Hiccup says. “I-I’m great!”

“Uh-huh, I’ll see you tomorrow, Horrendous.”

My heart never stopped beating until I made it to the front door of my house. But, I was then faced with another surprise coming my way.


	15. Chapter 15

“Dad?”

The words escaped my mouth before I could fully process that Dad and Snotlout were sitting across the wooden table from one another. Snotlout’s wasn’t facing me, but when he heard my voice, he whips around in his chair, flashing me a grim look.

“Hilde,” Dad stands up from his seat. He pulls out the small chair beside him from the table. “Take a seat. I was just asking Snotlout where you went.”

I bite my lip but I do comply. Once I take a seat, I fold my hands out in front of me and rest them on the table. I hope it’s not too obvious that I’m trying to look calm and collected…“So, what’s up? I didn’t realize that you already came back.”

Dad sits down again. “Couldn’t locate that dratted nest. Which means more bloody attacks to deal with from those reptiles and we’re already running short on supplies as of right now,” he slams his fist against the table in frustration. “It’s going to be a long winter.”

I gulp. “Well, I’m sure something will work out on its own, right Snotlout?”

Snotlout narrows his eyes. “Sure.”

Dad sighs. “I hope that you two have been behaving. Soon, this will be your battle to carry on for us. I won’t be around to protect you two forever.”

“Oh, trust me, we know.” I mutter.

“So, tell me all about Dragon Training,” Dad leans back in his seat and props his sword up on the table. “What kind of dragons have you both been fighting? Will I be able to witness either of you two taking down the Monstrous Nightmare?”

Silence drapes over us like an itchy wool.

“Um…” I cast my gaze down at the hangnail on my thumb.

“Hilde?” Dad asks. “Have you been able to take down a good one yet?”

I shake my head. The back of my eyes were beginning to feel like black static. “Well, um, I—”

“What is it?” Dad leans forward. I remain quiet. “If something is troubling you then you have to bury it away. This is about your future and your skillset. If you’re not going to take any of this seriously, then—”

“She’s been doing fine, Dad,” Snotlout’s voice cuts through the atmosphere, like a disc being flung from across the other side of the room. “She’s just being...modest.”

I look up from my sunken head position. My eyes slowly crosses over to Snotlout’s and he just plainly stares back at me.

What is he doing?

“Is that right?” Dad cocks his head towards me. “Hilde, have you really been giving it your all at Dragon Training?”

I catch Snotlout’s gaze once more. “Yes.”

Dad hums. “What kind of dragons have you attacked so far?”

I mentally take in a long inhale. “Well, there was the Deadly Nadder that I used a battle axe on. Then I used my Flashcut to defend myself against...a Sand Wraith.”

“A Sand Wraith?” Dad asks in a surprised tone. “Did it come at you from behind?”

I shake my head. “No, it flew in straight from the top. But I did a barrel roll to escape it and then...and then I attacked it with my sword.”

Liar, liar, pants on fire.

“I hear that Stoick’s son has been doing pretty well too,” Dad mentions. “Gobber was just telling me how he has ‘his way’ with the beasts.”

I nod. “Yes, he’s become very good. Astrid is really good, too, so there’s definitely some competition...it’s really down to those two.”

Dad furrows his eyebrows. “You just told me you were giving it your all. Why wouldn’t it be down to you or Snotlout?”

“Because, Dad,” I tried my best to not sound whiny but I could feel my voice straining and getting tight. “They’re just...really good. I didn’t stand a chance from the beginning.”

“This—” he gestures at me. “This is unacceptable. With that attitude, of course it wasn’t going to be you from the start. You need to get tougher, Hilde. This self-doubt and insecurity facade isn’t going to cut it anymore. I’m not here to coddle you—I’m here to push you,” Dad shakes his head in complete disapproval before turning to Snotlout. “Have you also been slacking or are you actually going to impress me?”

Snotlout hesitates. “I’ve been trying really hard, Dad. I know how to fight and I’m a great asset.”

"Not good enough," Dad mutters. "Considering I won't be seeing you face off the Monstrous Nightmare."

I start to think about what Hiccup said to me about never making an effort and just assuming good relationships will come my way. I'm stupidly, stupidly naive. I felt words and emotions bubbling up from inside my throat, and it was right then and there where I decided to make an effort. “Snotlout is great, Dad. He protected me against a Gronckle that was ready to spit its molten rocks at me. Snotlout saved me before anyone else could. Without him, I would’ve been seriously injured or even killed.”

Dad takes a moment or two to process this. But, it wasn’t long before he started speaking again. “Very well,” he stands up from the table. “I suppose all of us have a bit of adjusting to do with our expectations. And that’s including me.” With those words lingering in the air between us, he grabs his sword and walks out of the room.

o~o~o~o~o

“Hey, wait,” I grab Snotlout’s arm as we make our way inside the comfort of our own bedrooms. “I just wanna say thank you. I know I haven’t been perfect for awhile now, especially with the whole ignoring you thing, and then I kind of insulted you earlier…” I hear Snotlout scoff so I decide to get to my point faster. “Anyways, thanks for not throwing me under the bus.”

He nods and opens up the door to his own room. “You’re a really good liar, you know that?”

I chuckle. “I guess I learned from the best.”

“Yeah,” he shrugs. “You would’ve been able to weasle yourself out if I gave you up and I didn’t feel like getting put on the spot by Dad. Figured I’d save the trouble.”

“Well, thanks for that.”

Snotlout leans against his doorframe. “Should I even bother asking you for the truth?”

I innocently blink at him. “What’re you talking about?”

He scoffs at me again. “You’re such a muttonhead.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Just don’t be an idiot, Hilde,” he says. “You’ve been skipping Dragon Training and I know you’ve been spending time with Hiccup. I don’t really know what you see in him, but it is what it is I guess.”

I pause. “Wait a sec...do you think that Hiccup and I are, like, together?”

Snotlout raises his hands up in defense. “I didn’t want to say it out loud ‘cause, honestly, it’s kind of weird. Let me just say this, if you’re trying to keep it a secret for now, you’re doing a pretty terrible job.”

“How—”

“It’s definitely not a coincidence that Hiccup started getting better at Dragon Training right when you two started spending time together, and then you skipping it so he stands more of a chance when the time comes.”

“Woah, woah, woah!” I flail my arms around. “You’ve got this entire thing wrong!”

He gives me a smug look. “Do I now? Or are you just too embarrassed to admit it?”

“No! I mean, first of all, I wouldn’t skip training just so my ‘boyfriend’ had better odds. Gods, how easy do you think I am?”

“I’m not saying that at all,” he simply shrugs. “But, it makes sense to me.”

“Who’s the muttonhead now?” I press my knuckle against my temple. “Look, I’m not going to explain myself to you.”

“Uh-huh,” he answers. “Don’t get mad at me just because my own superior knowledge and intellect revealed your secret about your forbidden love with—ow!”

I stomped on his foot and enter inside my own room, allowing the door to slam right in his face. He’s a jerk but at least he kept quiet and he’s off my trail. For now, at least.

The truth was going to expose itself soon. I didn’t know when and I didn’t know how, but it was going to happen soon. Very soon.


	16. Chapter 16

“You ready for this?” I ask Hiccup. We were both standing at the side of the arena, waiting for our battle to begin. The rest of the viking teenagers were preparing and hyping themselves up before Gobber announces that it’s time to determine who will be taking on the Monstrous Nightmare for tomorrow. From up above the ring, I can already see the adult vikings gathering around, eager to witness who will win in our final training.

Hiccup gives me a knowing look and adjusts the viking hat on his head. “Oh, yeah. You won’t even believe how ready I am for this.”

“Clearly,” I chuckle. “You’ve been training pretty hard for this very moment.”

“I’m surprised you even showed up,” he gingerly pushes me on my shoulder on the word you.

“Dad is watching,” I eye him from up above. His arms were crossed and it seemed like he was somehow watching Snotlout and I simultaneously. “I—well, Snotlout and I told him that I’ve been attending the trainings. If he found out that I’ve been skipping, I’d probably never hear the end of it.”

“Snotlout?” Hiccup asks in a surprised tone. “He actually covered for you?”

“Yeah...perhaps I underestimate him. Maybe I’ve been acting too much like a whiny child and I should’ve put whatever feud we have together behind me. It probably would’ve been for the best.”

“Okay, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves,” Hiccup says. “First of all, you are far from a whiny child and Snotlout is still Snotlout. But I’m glad you guys kind of worked things out finally.”

I nod and smile. “How’s your Dad, Hiccup? Have you talked to him at all?”

The playful spark in Hiccup’s eyes fall and he turns his head away from me. “Yeah...he’s really proud of me, or at least he thinks he is. I guess Gobber told him how I’ve been doing, but he doesn’t know the full story. I mean, for Odin’s sake he gave me this viking helmet made from half my Mom’s breastplate. He thinks we can finally have a normal relationship but he just doesn’t understand any of it and...it makes me feel horrible.”

I inch closer to Hiccup from his side. “Horrible in what way?”

“Like...like…” Hiccup looks up from the ground and stares out into nothing in particular. “Like the only way I’ll ever be able to make my Dad proud of me is if I continue to lie to him. Like nothing else I’d ever be able to do would matter because I’m not the strong viking he dreams about me becoming. Because nothing I ever do can change that fact.”

My entire chest and stomach aches and I can’t stop myself from immediately reaching out and grabbing his hand, not fully aware that the rest of teens could’ve been peering over at us but also not even partially caring. “I know you think that’s true and—you know what, maybe it is a little bit true. But you cannot deny all that you’ve accomplished throughout this—whatever this is. Hiccup, you did this on your own. You captured Toothless and then you set him free. You built for him and then you flew him. I was merely the supporting character in your story because you are the master of your own destiny. No matter what happens today, realize that nobody else, but you, took this first step.”

Hiccup, wide-eyed, stares at me with mouth slightly ajar. “Wow...I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.”

I blush and step away from him. “That was way more dramatic than I intended it to be. Yeah, I was trying to go for just a simple pep talk but I guess I got a little carried away…”

“Oh, don’t worry, I really appreciate all of it.”

“Well, great! Then I guess I’ll scoot on out of here,” I begin to do an awkward shuffle backwards.

“Impeccable timing,” Hiccup’s eyes wander off to the side. “Looks like Astrid is coming over here.”

I turn around and, sure enough, I’m face-to-face with Astrid. Her battle axe was hung over her one shoulder and she had a suspicious look on her face.

Nonetheless, I give her a small wave. “Hey, Astrid.”

She nods in response. “Hi, Hilde. Hiccup.” I couldn’t help but notice the obvious drop in her tone when she said Hiccup’s name. I guess she’s still pretty mad at him.

Still, Hiccup tries to act cordial towards her. “Hi, Astrid.”

“Don’t mean to interrupt your conversation, but I actually want to talk to Hilde. So if you don’t mind…” she waves Hiccup away.

“O-oh, but of course!” He looks over at me. “I guess I’ll see you two around then.”

“For sure,” I try to give him a reassuring smile.

“Well, okay then.” Hiccup re-adjusts his viking hat and hurriedly walks away from us.

I turn back to Astrid. “What’d you wanna talk about?”

“First off, I’m shocked you decided to show your face today,” Astrid says. “You think you stand a chance?”

“Um, I’m not sure, really,” I try to stop my eyes from look up towards my Dad.

“Hm,” she puts her one free hand on her hip. “Well, just so we’re clear, I do plan on winning this thing.”

I nervously laugh. “Then I guess I have absolutely no intentions on winning today.”

Astrid tilts her head to the side. “What about Hiccup?”

“What about him? From what I’ve heard, he’s really good, too.”

“Has he really not been telling you anything?” Astrid’s creeps closer to me, the atmosphere rapidly changing to an almost mild threatening one. “I see you guys talking and hanging out, and he’s sneaking off just like you sometimes sneak off, and even just now it looked like you were in a serious conversation about something, so I fail to believe that you don’t know anything because, Thor help me, if he wins this thing….”

“Astrid...what are you trying to ask me?”

She sighs. “I chose to believe you before when you told me that the reason you were skipping Dragon Training was because of Snotlout and you were training yourself. But, according to him, you’ve been giving him the cold shoulder until just yesterday which, in fact, was the first time you spoke to him.”

I stare down at my boots. Did this have to happen right now?

“He claims that you and Hiccup are now together, which would explain the sneaking off, but he also pointed out that it wasn’t a coincidence that Hiccup started to get better at Dragon Training just as you started disappearing. Did you know about that?”

I shake my head and ignore her question. “Why do you need to know—”

“Because, I don’t ever really care if there was secrecy going on around here, but if it’s standing in the way of my success then you better believe that I’ll get to the bottom of it. So, tell me. Is it true?”

I feel cold sweat running through my body. I think about snow and how, if it gets too windy, it’ll dust up into your face and make your teeth chatter. “Hiccup and I aren’t ‘together’ and I haven’t been skipping training just to give him a better shot at winning if that’s what you’re asking. I’ve been skipping training on my very own terms.”

“Then how do you explain him getting really good all of a sudden? Don’t even try and lie your way out of this one.”

“It’s not just my story to tell, Astrid; It’s also Hiccup’s.”


	17. Chapter 17

The final training has begun and, with just my luck, it was down to me, Hiccup, and Astrid.

Like I said before, I wasn’t trying to win this. I intend on getting out eventually but, since my Dad was watching, I had to make it look like I was at least trying. I haven’t exactly worked out how I was going to go “down” but I figured a good opportunity would come up eventually. I had no idea what was racing through Hiccup’s mind.

I look up and see the Gronckle whizzing past and circling the arena as the adult vikings continue to cheer the rest of us on from the outside of it. Stoick was loudly cheering on his son, bellowing “..that’s my boy!” at any chance he can get. I couldn’t help but smile at the sight—he was thoroughly impressed by his son for even managing to get down in the top three.

Maybe one day my Dad will be proud of me in that way.

The rest of the teen vikings have huddled up on the side of the arena, intently watching to see who will be the one that ends up winning. The twins and Fishlegs were mostly cheering on Hiccup and Astrid, but I heard the occasional “Hilde, you knock it dead!” from either one of the twins and Fishlegs flashing me a thumbs-up from time to time. Snotlout would just raise his one eyebrow at me.

There were long, wooden defense posts scattered throughout the arena so I hop over one of them to keep myself covered. Hopefully the Gronckle will shoot at me from here and then I’d have to get out. Can’t say I didn’t try.

I rub my sweaty forehead with the back of my arm and peer over the top of the post. I dart my eyes from side to side. After that, I sink myself down against the wooden post again, only this time Hiccup is next to me with his back slouched against it.

I jolt in alarm. “Hiccup!”

“Sorry to startle you,” he looks at me and gives me a half-smile. “I just ran into Astrid and, man, she was not happy. What did she say to you?”

“This really isn’t the time to get into it right now,” I also didn’t want to think back to that conversation. It’s one of those moments where you wish you could just bottle up that memory and tuck it away to a deep, dark place and leave well enough alone.

“Oh, well I’m sure she was just being her overly-competitive self and you know how she gets—”

“How are you appearing so cavalier right now?” I ask. “Isn’t your Father watching this training? Like I don’t know what you’re doing, but I’m trying to get out, but even then I still feel so worked-up and I think it has to do with my Dad, but it’s kind of ridiculous…” I lean my head back against the wooden post, wishing that I hadn’t used the word but too many times in that sentence.

Hiccup averts his gaze from me. “I don’t know...maybe I just feel a little bit relaxed when I’m around you.”

I blush. “You need to keep your focus back on your surroundings—”

“Look out!”

Hiccup roughly shoves me away from the post. I fall on my knees and my hand goes to my Flashcut to unsheath it. But, when I look behind me, Hiccup had dropped his shield in the midst of shoving me away and the Gronckle had fired straight at him.

Oh no.

Hiccup had tried to use his axe to defend himself against the dragon, but it only resulted in him avoiding getting very burned and singed from the blast, but it was enough to send him flying and falling onto the ground.

“Hiccup’s out!” Gobber cries from the sidelines.

The crowd gasp but, eventually, cheer from all the excitement. Stoick stands up from his seat and, to a surprise, he claps. “Don’t worry, Hiccup! I’m still proud of ya! Excellent job!”

I slowly turn towards Hiccup with an annoyed look on my face. “Hiccup!”

“W-what did you want me to do?!” He looks at me confused.

I groan and run away, choosing to ignore his question. I leap over multiple wooden posts before ducking behind another one again. When I look over it, the Gronckle was circling the ring again and I see Astrid glimpsing over her defense post too. Her eyes fall on me and she squints them at me in an almost menacing way. She was hell-bent on winning and definitely wasn’t going to be inviting me over to watch her back this time around.

She ducks back down, but I decide to keep my head up. When I see Astrid again, she was running towards the Gronckle with her axe raised in the air, ready to strike it.

Good I thought. Win this thing once and for all.

The Boulder class dragon see’s Astrid sprinting towards it and, defensively, speeds head-on to her and knocks her away.

Well, that didn’t work.

Astrid goes soaring in my direction and falls on the ground, her battle axe getting knocked several feet away from her in the process. The Gronckle looks at her falling, but sees me standing behind one of the post and starts to make its way to me. I jump over my post and begin to run away.

Wait, what in Thor’s name am I doing?! I should let it fire at me so I can get out!

But, that defensive and raised-to-be-a-fighter part of me kicks in and I’m still looking for ways to not get injured. The Gronckle rushes up to me and, before I know it, I’m backed up against a wall. I unsheath my sword once more, for appearances and all, and hold it up against the dragon’s face.

Yeah, that’s right, I’m going to attack you. Open your mouth and fire at me and I’ll use my sword to protect myself but I’ll be able to get out.

I wait and watch for it to spit its lava at me. The Gronckle backs away from me and, the next thing I know, it speeds at full force at me. I’ll be crushed and flat against the wall before I can even blink. I instinctively roll away from its line of crush barely just in time, resulting it to hit the wall instead and slightly dazing itself in the process.

It must’ve reached its shot limit...it dawns on me that getting fired at was now probably out of the question. I didn’t mind getting partially burned in the process, but I wasn’t about to break every bone in my body.

Before I could even stand back up on my own two feet, the Gronckle shoves me back, its large, hard, bumpy claw keeping me pressed against the ground. I could feel the dragon heaving itself up and preparing to mortally crush me again with its head. I go to reach for my sword again, but another idea pops back in my brain.

This could work without me hurting it...and if it does work then I’ll avoid getting mortally crushed to death.

I kick my legs up against the dragon. It relaxes its grip on me enough to where I could reach up find its pressure point just behind its ear and kind of below its jaw. I close my eyes and scratch and press down on it.

This could work...but if it doesn’t then I should brace for pain.

The dragon unconsciously falls on top of me, snoozing sound asleep.

Even from underneath the dragon I can hear the cheers and roars from the crowd from the sight before them.

This whole thing is bad. Really bad.

I try to wiggle myself from underneath it but I soon feel two large hands, grabbing me from underneath my arms, and dragging me out. When I’m resurfaced, I realize that the two hands belong to Gobber, who was grinning at me. “Not bad for a girl that disappeared from Dragon Training!”

I awkwardly laugh. “Heh, heh, yeah…”

“Must’ve trained yourself right. Maybe I should have you teach the classes from now on.” He winks at me.

“Oh, that is definitely not necessary.”

He smiles and places me down on the ground. “Something we can talk about later.”

I turn away from him and spot Astrid gripping her axe with both hands, her angry eyes burning daggers at me. “NO! NO! YOU SNIVELING, CRAWLING PIECE OF FORKED-TONGUED RUBBISH!” She swings her axe around in frustration.

I bite my lip and try not to take anything Astrid is saying too close to heart. But, she wasn’t wrong. I have been lying and I haven’t been preparing for this as much as she has and I took that away from her. She has every right to get mad at me.

I can hear Stoick trying to silence everyone in the crowd. “Wait, wait, wait!”

I turn towards Gobber. “I don’t think I belong here….I should just go.”

“Nonsense. You took down the Gronckle.”

“Astrid deserves this, Gobber. Not me. She trained so hard for this.”

He looks down at me and sighs. “It’s not up to me, Hilde. It’s Gothi who decides exactly who deserves this.”

Astrid stomps up next to me and accusingly holds her axe at me. “Explain yourself! Now!”

“Okay, quiet down,” Stoick raises his voice once more to silence the jabbering crowd. “The Elder has decided.”

The crowd almost instantly hushes in anticipation as Gobber places himself between Astrid and I. He hovers his metal hooked hand above Astrid’s head, which receives a disapproving nod from Gothi. The crowd gasps and ooohs. When Gobber places his hand on top of my head, I hesitate to look up even though it was pretty obvious what the answer was going to be at this point.

Gothi smiles and nods.

The crowd erupts back into praise. I don’t dare to look over at Astrid, who was no doubt probably seething at this point. Gobber beams and grabs me by arms, shaking me in delight. “You’ve done it Hilde! You get to kill the dragon! Always knew you had it in you!”

I can only suppress an awkward smile. When I roll my eyes up at the cheering crowd above, I see my Father nodding and clapping at the news.

The rest of the Viking teens run up to me. The twins immediately pat me on the back. Fishlegs scoops me up in a bear hug. “You see what happens when you don’t doubt yourself!”

Snotlout makes his way over with an actual smile plastered on his face. “Maybe you haven’t been slacking for your boyfriend after all.”

I can’t even build up enough strength to snap back at him. I was still hung up on the whole killing a dragon part. I didn’t even get fazed when I get hoisted up on people’s shoulders in celebration and I certainly don’t even bother to notice Hiccup’s worried glances at me.

I was still hung up on the whole killing a dragon part.

o~o~o~o~o

“Hilde! Hilde, slow down!”

I tromp through the woods, pulling a brown, leather harness over my head and fastening it around my body. All of my movements were very sharp and abrupt and I still had massive droplets of frustration running through my body, even though it was dusk now and I only just now ran into Hiccup because he had given me a harness to match the one he was already wearing.

“Hilde!” Hiccup calls out again. He grabs me by the shoulder and forces me to turn to him, shifting the bag of fish he was carrying on his back, “Hilde, look at me.”

“No!” I grab his hand and brush it away from my shoulder. “This entire thing just became a mess! I wasn’t supposed to win this, I mean, for the love of Gods I skipped Dragon Training so I wouldn’t win this! Now, suddenly when I can make a Gronckle fall unconscious, I’m supposed to kill a Monstrous Nightmare?”

“Well, I think that was the whole point,” Hiccup mutters.

“Huh?”

“People think that you trained yourself and that’s pretty impressive considering what you did in there.”

“But, I don’t care about that!” I walk away from Hiccup.

He jogs up and catches up to me, trying to match my hurried gait. “Look, I know this whole thing is bad, but there’s still a chance that we could fix this. Why don’t we just take Toothless on a flight right now, blow off some steam, and we’ll talk about it.”

“There’s nothing we can do, Hiccup,” I shake my head repeatedly. “I have to fulfill this tomorrow, I have no choice! My Dad would be ashamed of me if I just never take it.”

“Well, you should’ve seen him today. He looked so proud of you today, Hilde.”

“I saw him afterwards,” I murmur and rub my arms. “He gave me a hug and...went off with Stoick.”

Hiccup nods. “Yeah, I talked to my Dad too. He told me how him and nobody else expected me to make it this far and how he still can’t believe how hard I’ve worked to become a real viking and that...I’m officially one of them.”

“That’s nice, Hiccup,” I force a small grin. “Really. That’s nice.” I turn around and continue to walk to the cove.

Hiccup groans and follows after me. “I know you’re still mad because you have to be the one that kills a dragon tomorrow, but it’s bad on me too. Believe me, I didn’t want any of this to happen—”

“Then why did you push me out of the way?” I ask him, snapping my head at him. “Could’ve easily killed two birds with one stone if we both got fired at back there.”

He stammers. “W-well, excuse me, that instinctively protecting you from a fire blast makes you mad!”

I rub my face with my hands. “That’s not the part I’m talking about!”

“Then which is it?!”

“Just..just…”I clench my fists together and I open my mouth to form words, but nothing comes out. It’s not like I was having trouble thinking of an argument, it’s just my brain was racking through every single possible thing that has ticked me off in the past several hours, and I was having a hard time choosing. Instead, I make an aggravated noise. “I need a vacation.”

“Great! Then let's take one!”

I continue on. “I just need to fly away and clear my head for a couple of days. Or weeks. Or years. There just has to be more out there than the land that Berk covers.”

Hiccup nods and begins to look straight ahead at his path. “I know what you mean.”

I sigh and decide to focus on my walking.


	18. Chapter 18

By the time Hiccup and I reach the cove, Toothless is nowhere in sight. I look over at Hiccup, shrug, and walk over to the stream. I knelt down on the ground and splash some cooling water over my hot, burned-out face. A ride through the sky is the only least stressful thing on my mind, the single tipping point that keeps my mind from breaking into the remoteness of insanity. Funny, weeks ago I couldn’t fathom the idea of climbing on top of a dragon. Now, it’s one of the things that can keep me centered nowadays.

I let out a sigh and splash some more water on my face.

“Well,” I hear Hiccup setting down the basket of fish from behind. “Let’s pack up.”

I wrinkle my forehead in confusion, causing globules of water to trickle down to my nose and chin. “Pack up?”

“Looks like you and I are taking a little vacation,” I can practically hear the grin in his voice.

“Forever?”

“Forever.” He promises.

I smile and look down at my hands, tugging at my leather gauntlets. I always have a habit of doing that whenever I’m nervous or excited...I remember I kept doing that when I saw Toothless for the first time. I remember Hiccup sketching him and then dropping the pencil. It was the first time our gazes met, the first time the mysterious creature allowed me a small glimpse inside the windows to his untainted soul.

I stare down at the reflection of myself in the water. I see the curly brown hair that was always wound together in a tight braid and the famous Jorgenson blue eyes rippling through the water, but it all seemed too fake, like a walking lie that tried to appease too many people at once...I lean in closer to try and take in every little detail of myself.

My mind is becoming too clouded with thoughts again….

“AGGH!” Hiccup hollers out. “WHAT THE—”

His loud voice sends a surprised shock—literally, I felt an electric charge stabbing me in the chest and multiplying throughout my body. I jump and fall face-first into the stream, drenching my entire hair and the front of my clothes. My knees fall forward but they keep my boots dry. Eventually, I hurriedly lift myself up and and stagger away from the edge of the stream. I blink and rub my eyes to clear away any excess water before they finally focus on Hiccup, who had a startled look on his face. When I look around, and find what caused him to freak out, my heart gets caught in my throat.

Astrid.

She was sitting on top of one of the large rocks, casually sharpening her axe.

How long has she been there? How did we not notice her before?

“Astrid!” Hiccup is completely astonished. “W-what are you doing here?”

Without another thought, she hops off the rock. “I want to know what’s going on,” Astrid walks grievously towards Hiccup. “What you’ve done all throughout Dragon Training is ridiculous. No one can just get as good as you do, especially you. Now, you,” she turns to me, spinning her axe in my face. “Disappearing and then showing up to steal my kill away from me? What is your game?”

I back up and try to lower her axe down and away from me. “Do you want my win? You can have it, you deserve it more than me.”

Astrid makes an angry noise. “That is not how this whole thing works. I was an idiot to believe you and I can't believe I let myself not see through all of your fakeness in the first place. So, start talking! You were training together, weren’t you?”

“Yes,” I vigorously nod. “Yes, you’re right, we were training together and—”

“And then what?” She eyes me more suspiciously. “Why go through all the lies and troubles? Why skip training and then snatch my win right out of my hands?” she frowns and shakes her head. “I still can’t believe I ever trusted you.”

I’m surprised you ever did. But, knowing that you did, makes me feel terrible. Not that that can fix anything.

A rustle is heard from the other side of the stream and it instantly catches Astrid’s attention. She thrusts me out of the way and starts to walk towards it.

“Okay, okay, okay, you know what?” Hiccup panics and shoves himself in front of Astrid but that doesn’t stop her from inspecting the area. “You’re right! We’re through with all the lies! The truth is, Astrid, we’ve been...making outfits!”

I drop my damp head in my hands. This entire situation was falling apart faster than anyone could ever humanely imagine.

Hiccup continues, “Hilde and I have been making outfits! So, you got us and, you’re right, it’s time everyone knew. Drag us back. Go ahead,” he places her one hand on his harness in an attempt to get her to ‘drag him back.’ “Here we go.”

Astrid grapples that very hand into her own and bends his arm backward, sending him into the ground.

“OWWWW!” Hiccup moans in pain. “Why would you do that?!”

“Astrid!” I yelp in surprise and dash up to them. “That wasn’t necessary—”

With that being said, she doesn’t wait to elbow me straight in my rib. Hard.

“OWW!” I crumble to the floor and fall next to Hiccup. “Okay….I guess I deserve that one.”

“That was for the lies,” Astrid specifies before dropping the hilt of her axe against both of our stomachs. “And that was for everything else.”

I feel pain probing in all of the targeted areas and my ears felt like cotton. When I look at Hiccup, he tries to crack a smile but I knew it was just to amuse me. It doesn’t work. With Astrid turned away from us, we both take this opportunity to stand up.

“Get down!” Astrid shouts and plunges into us. I hear snarling and, when I turn my head, Toothless was advancing at us with his ears back.

Crap.

“Run! Run!” Astrid raises her axe above her head and prepares to hurl it at Toothless.

“No!” Hiccup and I cry out at the same time. I make a dive to knock the battle axe out of Astrid’s hands, and Hiccup goes to calm Toothless down.

“No, it’s okay! It’s okay...” Hiccup steadies the rhythm in his voice and keeps his arms raised above his head.

Toothless kicks his front legs up in the air before, finally, settling back down on the ground. His pupils were still in a thin, straight line and his ears were still pulled back, but he stopped aggressively spreading his wings. I kick Astrid’s battle axe out of sight and, when I see her, she is crouched down and frozen with terror.

“She’s our friend,” Hiccup speaks to Toothless and then looks back at Astrid. “You just scared him.”

“I scared him?!?” She nearly raises her voice in complete shock and looks at me, her eyes filled with perplexity. “Who is him?”

I look back at her and then I look at Toothless. “Astrid, Toothless. Toothless, Astrid.”

Toothless pretty much sneers in response.

Astrid, on the other hand, looks at all three of us in disgust. She slowly backs away, her emotions going back to anger, and runs away.

“Da, da-da! We’re dead!” Hiccup says deflatedly. Toothless turns around from the two of us and ponders off. “Woah, woah, woah, woah! Where do you think you’re going?”

We can’t let Astrid make it back to the village. There’s gotta be a way to stop her in time…

Without another moment to waste, I run after her.

“Now where do you think you’re going?!” Hiccup asks me.

I don’t respond. I keep running.

o~o~o~o~o

I didn’t have that much of a problem catching up to Astrid. But I knew getting her to listen to me was going to be another story.

“Astrid! Astrid, wait!” I accelerate up to her and grip her on the arm. “Look, just—”

She shoves right into me. “Don’t. Touch. Me.”

I swoop in front of her, blocking her path. “Fine. But you need to listen to me.”

“What makes you think I have to stand here and listen to anything you’re about to tell me?” She explodes. “You don’t have that kind of respect from me, in fact, you’re lucky if you still have any of it left. I mean, I could maybe expect this happening with Hiccup, but you? Gods, Hilde, how long have you known about this and why on earth wouldn’t you tell anyone?”

I didn’t have to answer that. I couldn’t. A familiar teenage boy on his Night Fury had brushed down and grabbed hold of both Astrid and I on the dragon’s claws, and swept us up into the sky.

Astrid screams. “AH! Oh, great Odin’s ghost, this is it!”

I remember getting frightened to death the first time Toothless took me up in the air. I thought it was the end, too. Now, getting lifted in the air, feeling the wind brushing across my face, it makes me feel like on top of the world. Like I’m finally in control of things.

And I knew Hiccup and Toothless wouldn’t drop me.

“AHHHHHHHH!” Astrid’s yells echoes cross the sky.

“You’re not going to fall!” I assure her, but it didn’t matter. She was still too busy screaming.

Hiccup and Toothless fly us to a pine tree and deposit the two of us onto a branch. Astrid and I both catch the branch as we fall, swinging and dangling our legs into the open air below us. When Hiccup and Toothless land on top of tree, it bows down, creaking under their weight. I start to pull myself up, throwing my legs over the branch.

“Hiccup!” Astrid barks. “Get me down from here!”

“You have to give me a chance to explain!” Hiccup pleads with her. He eyes me making my way over to the back of Toothless and extends his hand out for me, which I accept.

“I am NOT listening to anything you or Hilde have to say!” She snaps her head away from Hiccup’s stare.

“Then we won’t speak! Just let us show you!” Hiccup compromises. “Please, Astrid.”

I hoist myself up on Toothless, placing myself directly behind Hiccup. “You see, Astrid? It’s easy and, we promise you, you will not get hurt.”

She guffaws. “Why should I trust you after everything—”

“Just shut up and get on the dragon!” I snap.

Astrid’s expression drops. Hiccup turns around at me in surprise and, I swear, I hear Toothless expressing a stunned, cooing noise.

I raise my hand up to my mouth. “I-I’m so sorry, I don’t know what came over me.”

“Psh,” is all Astrid says. Nonetheless, she reluctantly climbs up the tree, hurdles herself over Toothless, and plops herself behind me . But she makes sure to swat Hiccup’s hand away in the process. “Alright, now get me down from here.”

“Toothless? Down. Gently.” Hiccup instructs.

He slowly spreads his wings out and takes his time to lift off the tree, hovering in place.

“See?” Hiccup cranes his body around to look at Astrid and I. “Nothing to be afraid of.”

Let’s just say that he spoke too soon.


	19. Chapter 19

Without any forewarning, The Night Fury launched us up into the sky, sending the pine tree back to its upright stance. The clouds in the sky blur past us and Astrid falls back out of her seat, screaming and thrashing around, doing anything she can to not fall off and plumet to her death. I lean forward and tighten my grip around Hiccup’s waist as he desperately attempts to regain control of him.

“Toothless!” Hiccup scolds. “What is wrong with you?! Bad dragon!”

The speed was absolutely insane. Out of all the times I’ve been on Toothless, he has never doubled it like this before. My eyes were watering and I wanted to close them, but I knew that would make things worst.

“He’s not usually like this, Astrid…” Hiccup trails off but he was indeed embarrassed by the whole situation itself. Astrid claws onto my back and wraps her arms around my shoulders for dear life.

“Here, let me try and—” I try to snake my way around Hiccup but, before I know it, Toothless dips to the side and races to the glistening water below us.

“Oh no.” Hiccup utters.

Astrid proceeds to scream as Toothless sumerges us in the water, but only for a millisecond. When we resurface again, he takes back down in the water, and resurfaces again. Astrid doesn’t let go of me the entire time.

“Toothless, what are you doing, we need her to like us!” Hiccup grips down on the dragon’s gear.

Toothless ejects us back up into the sky, rapidly tumbling along the way.

“And now the spinning,” Hiccup irritably says. “Thank you for nothing you useless reptile.”

“I second that.” I grumble.

This whole thing is dreadful. Toothless was ruining this for Hiccup and I, and now someone could get hurt, and then we’d have to go back to Berk, and that’s positively the worst way to tell everyone about our lovely Night Fury who injured one of our own. They’d, without a doubt, put him down with no need for further explanation.

Astrid buries her head into my back. “Okay! I’m sorry!” She exclaims. “I’m sorry! Just get me off of this thing!”

The air around us lightens and there was almost a magical hue in our ambience. Toothless had leveled off, floating us up into the pink clouds. I feel Astrid’s weight peeling off my back. I turn around to catch her glimpse and I see her eyes wide open and replaced with a different type of energy. Wonderment was depicted on her face. She reaches a hand up and touches one of the clouds. I copy her motions and we both look at each other, grinning from ear to ear.

Astrid falls back on Toothless and stares up into the golden-pink clouded sky. She had finally let go of me.

The dimly-lit stars in the murky sky was upon us before we knew it. We were all still flying on Toothless, but the peaceful, tranquil mood had yet to be disturbed. We had seen the Northern Lights illuminating the sky earlier and, now, we could all see Berk’s torches flickering in the wind. I unconsciously felt myself tightening my hold around Hiccup and it wasn’t because I was afraid I was going to fall off. This time.

Astrid pushes air out from between her lips. “Alright. I admit it. This is pretty cool,” she pats me on the shoulder. “It’s….amazing.”

I look back at her once more. “I’m sorry again I told you to shut up.”

“Psh,” she waves it off. “Sometimes you have to shut up. It pays off.”

My eyes wander off. “Astrid, I really am sorry about all the lies. I—never should’ve betrayed your trust.”

She takes a beat before answering. “I probably shouldn't have been so quick to judge. I definitely didn’t mean to say I didn’t respect you and, for what it's worth, you still have my trust. I’m sorry, too.”

I give her a delighted look. “You liking all of this?”

“Oh, yeah,” Astrid reaches down and pats Toothless. “He’s amazing.”

“I’m glad you think so.”

“So, what now?” She finally asks. “Hilde, your final exam is tomorrow. You know you’re going to have to kill—” Astrid hears Toothless making a noise and whispers her last part. “—kill a dragon.”

I cringe. “You still don’t think it’s too late to give it to you?”

“Ha.”

“We’ll have to figure that out when we get there,” Hiccup speaks up. “There just has to be something we can work out.”

“The only thing I see ‘working out’ is me going through with it and having Toothless remain a secret.” I cast a sad glance at him.

Suddenly, Toothless rolls to the side, disappearing into a large blanket of clouds. Astrid and I give a startled cry.

“Toothless! What’s happening?” Hiccup questions. “What is it?”

As we continue to flap through the thickset clouds, A Monstrous Nightmare appears on our right.

“Get down!” Hiccup orders us. My hands suddenly become clammy as I hunch over, feeling, once again, the weight of Astrid’s body on top of mine. The Monstrous Nightmare makes a noise, beckoning a Hideous Zippleback to appear on our left now.

“What’s going on?” Astrid questions.

“I don’t know,” Hiccup remains ducked down. “Toothless, you’ve got to get us out of here, bud.”

He hisses in response.

“Guys,” I whisper. “Toothless wouldn’t just put us in mindless danger. He might be trying to show us something.”

“Like what?” Hiccup asks.

One by one, dragons of different species become visible through the dense fog, surrounding all of us with nowhere to escape.

“Maybe this? Maybe they’re all heading to the same place?”

Nobody answers. It was too much of a far-fetched question to answer to. We all peek our heads up and study the dragons…

“They’re carrying fish and supplies in their talons,” I note.

“It looks like they're hauling in their kill.” Hiccup agrees.

“Uh, what does that make us?” Astrid asks in a scared tone.

All of the dragons start incline in a downward motion, including Toothless. Hiccup, Astrid, and I all hold onto each other a little tighter. The dragons weave their way through scattered sea stacks before we loom over a large volcanic caldera. Burnished lava ran through the outside of the volcano. My eyes widen at the sight before we all—the hundreds of dragons, plus Toothless and us—scurry through a small opening in the volcano. We zip through a wide, tunnel-like area, and then we emerge inside a vast space. It was bright orange, most likely due to the lava, and there were a bunch of tall shelves that stretched up and pocketed dragons.

“What my Dad would give to find this…” Hiccup says in amazement.

“Mine too.” I agree.

Dragons continue to flock in, dropping in their kill inside the central, mist-covered, pit. My heart hammered in my chest and stomach when Toothless flew us over to where the other dragons were dropping their kill. Luckily, the nerves disinegrated when he glides us up onto one of the small shelves and perches us there, shielding us away from immediate sight.

“Well, it’s satisfying to know that all of our food has been dumped down a hole.” Hiccup states.

“They’re not eating any of it.” Astrid watches.

As the rest of the dragons file away from the pit, a Gronckle positions itself over it. It regurgitates and dumps a small fish inside the pit. As it begins to flee, a large roar rings out and, before I could even process it, a gargantuan dragon head bulges out from inside the steamy pit and swallows the poor Gronckle whole.

“Oh my Gods…” I flinch away from the sight.

“What is that?” Astrid recoils.

The immeasurable dragon head sinks back down inside the mist but, after a moment or two, it pokes its head back up and sniffs the air….

It senses us.

Hiccup picks up on this too. “Alright buddy, we gotta get out of here. Now!”

Toothless takes flight just as the dragon head snaps his large teeth at our spot.

We barely made it out just in time.

As we disappear from the volcanic caldera, we notice the rest of the dragons following suit with a sense of fear. I’m back to fiddling with my gauntlets.

o~o~o~o~o

“No, no, it totally makes sense,” Astrid rambles on. “It’s like a giant beehive. They’re the workers and that’s their queen! It controls them!”

Toothless glides down and then lands us back in the cove. Astrid dismounts from him and starts running. “Let’s find your Dad.”

“No!” Hiccup and I both answer at the same time. We each hop off of Toothless and run up to Astrid.

“Not yet, Astrid,” Hiccup says to her. “They’ll...kill Toothless.”

“We can’t risk that happening,” I acknowledge. “We have to think this through first.”

Astrid looks at us both in disbelievement. “Do you two realize that we just discovered the dragons’ nest? The thing we’ve been after since Vikings first sailed here? And you guys want to keep it a secret? To protect your pet dragon? Are you serious?”

“Yes.” I answer, showing no trace of emotion.

Hiccup looks at me and then stands up straighter. “Yes.”

Astrid flinches back, caught off guard. She looks at the two of us again. “Okay...so, what do we do?”

“I don’t know,” I feel myself deflating. “I just know that we can’t let Toothless get hurt.”

“Right,” Hiccup nods. “We’ll work it all out by tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Astrid says.

It’s silent now. A little bit longer than my liking. Hiccup clears his throat and I see Astrid staring at Hiccup, now. In a different though. More out of admiration than in annoyance. She flickers her gaze at me and then stares back at him again.

“Um,” I speak up. “I’m going to go and...make sure Toothless gets enough water.”

“Okay,” Astrid nods.

I shuffle off towards Toothless, who was already sipping up water from the stream. Still, I walk over anyways, scratching his ears. I look back and see Astrid talking with Hiccup. She punches him the arms and says something to him. As Hiccup rubs the spot that she hit him at, Astrid grabs him and places a kiss on his cheek. She says something else to him and hurries off, sneaking one last glance over his shoulder.

My heart hurts just a little bit. I don’t know why, though. I slowly look back down at Toothless, who was watching the scene unfold in front of me as well. He nuzzles against my face and I let out small laugh.

Hiccup walks over to us. “So, this whole evening was something, right?”

“Uh-huh,” I give a stiff nod. “I’m glad Astrid is finally taking a liking to you.”

“Yeah...wait, do you mean a like liking?”

I roll my eyes too hard. “Hiccup, yes. It’s obvious that she’s starting to like you.”

“But...why?”

“Well,” I lean off of Toothless, rocking back and forth. “You just flew a dragon for her, gave her a spectacular evening, and you had confidence. It’s not hard to put two and two together.”

“But, you were there,” Hiccup points out. “It’s not like it was a date or anything.”

I look down at the ground. “Would you prefer I wasn’t there?”

“What?” Hiccup gives me a skeptical look. “Why are you asking that?”

“Look, I’m just saying, she’s clearly starting to like you. It’s up to you to do with that information as you please. I’m just here to state the obvious.”

“Okay…” Hiccup says guardedly. “You seem pretty tense. It has to do with your final exam tomorrow, right?”

“Yes, Hiccup. That’s exactly it.”

He pauses. “Okay, why don’t I stay with Toothless tomorrow during your exam? You can focus on the two of us peacefully sitting here, waiting for you, while you muddle through the exam. It might help.”

“Thanks, Hiccup,” I look up at him. “It might actually be a little less stressful if you’re not watching.”

“Everything is going to be just fine,”

“You think?”

“As long as I have a say in it.”

“Let’s hope.”

He smiles and reaches around his neck, pulling out the ring-necklace I gave to him. “I’ve been wearing this ever since you’ve given it to me, you know.”

I tilt my head to the side. “Have you? At least it hasn’t fallen off by now.”

“Yeah...the necklace is actually feeling a little bit short.”

I roll my eyes again. More playfully this time. “That’s 'cause you’re not clasping it on the right hole, Horrendous.”

“Okay, who gave you the permission to keep referring me by my middle name?”

“Me,” I answer. “I gave myself that permission. Now, come here, and let me show you the basics on how to wear jewelry.”

Hiccup grins and steps closer to me. He lowers his head as I reach my arms around his neck. I unclasp the necklace, adjust it, and then clasp it together again.

“Good?” He asks.

“Good.” My hands remain around his neck.

Hiccup bends his head down a little bit more. He nuzzles our noses together before brushing his lips against mine. I find myself leaning in a little bit and our mouths fall lazily against each other. In that moment, I don’t hear the excess voices in my head and the feeling of all of my inner organs twisting itself up in a nervous bundle. Right now, all I can process, is experiencing my very first kiss.

The kiss doesn’t last more than two seconds. Maybe even less. Half a second, at the very least. When we break away, I find the back of my heels falling into Toothless. I trip backwards and Hiccup falls into me. I didn’t realize that he had put his one hand on my waist.

I reel away, positioning the two of us upright again. “I-I didn’t realize that Toothless was behind me…”

Hiccup chuckles. “Guess he found his way back there somehow…”

We both let out a laugh but, once that dies down, we both look away from each other, letting small smiles slip in our expressions.

“I should probably—”

“I’m gonna—-”

We both spoke at the same time. We laugh once more.

“I’m going to head home,” Hiccup tries again. “I’m sure my Dad is wondering where I am.”

“Yeah,” I agree. “You go ahead. I’m going to sit with Toothless for a little while longer. Okay?”

“Sounds good with me.” Hiccup gives a small wave and stalks off into the inky night, disappearing into the woods.

I let out a large sigh and turn around towards Toothless. He was curled up in the same spot he was just in, giving me a knowing look. I walk up to him and sprawl myself out on top of him, sighing once more. “Don’t say a word. I just want to think about what just happened.”

He coos.

“I don’t know what any of it means,” I roll on my back and look up at the stars. “I should be thinking about my exam for tomorrow but—” I stop and I feel the nerves creeping back in once more. I’m so sick of nerves living rent-free in my body.

Toothless makes a questioning noise.

I pet his back. “I just need to know that everything will work out tomorrow. I don’t care if I get hurt I just...I can’t let you, Hiccup, Astrid, or anyone get hurt. I wish I had the power to protect everyone from...everything. It’s just not fair.”

Toothless looks up and cuddles his front arm around me, making affectionate noises. I wait until he nods off before I make my way home later that night.


	20. Chapter 20

I did not sleep well at all that night. I felt too high-strung—like something crawled inside of me and was poking and prodding me everywhere. I drifted in and out of a sleep haze, always falling halfway out of my state of consciousness. Dreamland became a nonexistent concept. I was too focused on my exam and I still had to process the fact that I had kissed a boy.

Not just any boy, though. Hiccup was someone I’ve always considered a friend. Sure, there’s no doubt that we’ve gotten closer, but I had no idea what was happening until it actually started to happen.

I keep telling myself that it was just a kiss. Something that happened in the heat of the moment. But, kisses aren’t just kisses with me. It’s not a drop-it-like-it’s-hot kind of situation. If I kiss someone, it’s because I want it to mean something. It doesn’t necessarily have to turn into a full-fledged relationship or anything but, and I hate to admit, if Hiccup and I never at least talk about, I’d probably never be able to fully function around him ever again. I’m already an awkward person, so if I had to take that up ten notches, we’re better off just not speaking to one another ever again.

Stop making a big deal out of things. It’s not like we declared our betrothal.

The kiss could’ve been a mistake. Maybe he was just leaning down because he wanted to tell me a secret….maybe he was going to admit his feelings for Astrid.

Astrid.

I have to keep in mind that she gave Hiccup a peck on the cheek moments before my kiss happened with him...was that supposed to be a romantic gesture or was that the usual hey, I was kind of a jerk to you but you just flew me around a dragon so now you’re not as lame as I thought so let’s be friends kind of kiss? Was she capturing feelings for him, now? I thought about the way she stared at him...as if he was shapeshifting into something magnificent right before her very eyes…

I pick up one of my boots and throw it against my bedroom door in disgruntlement. None of this was supposed to matter right now. I have to kill a dragon in front of everyone today, and my entire thought process was absorbed on the kiss with Hiccup. What kind of a person does that make me?

A girl that needs to get her priorities in check.

I yank my boots on and walk downstairs into the kitchen. Dad was gone, but Snotlout was there, munching an apple to its core. Our eyes lock before he speaks. “Good morning?” He raises his eyebrows at me. His signature look.

“Sorry, good morning.”

“You ready for today?”

“Uh, yeah,” I wipe my prespired hands against my spiked skirt. “I-I just didn’t sleep well last night.”

“I wouldn’t either if I came home way past my curfew,” he casually says as he takes another bite from his apple. “Dad made me wait up for you.”

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“I ran into Hiccup last night,” Snotlout says in a static tone. “It looked like he was coming in through the woods.”

Oh.

“Oh?”

“He said he was with you,”

Oh.

“Oh?”

“That you and him were out walking through the woods.”

Oh.

“Oh?”

“Are you broken?”

“Sorry,” I mutter. “Yeah, Hiccup and I...we went for a walk last night.”

“Did you now?” Eyebrows raised.

“Yeah. I was jittery because of today and the whole Monstrous Nightmare thing...he offered to go on a walk with me, to calm me down.”

“Why weren’t you with him when I ran into him?” He tosses the apple away in the small, wooden, garbage bin.

“I wanted some alone time afterwards. I wanted to mentally prepare myself for today.”

“You seemed fine yesterday with the Gronckle.”

“I didn’t think I was going to win yesterday,” I plop myself down on the kitchen table. “It’s easier to do things with the mindset that you aren’t going to succeed. If you assume you’re going to fail, it just makes everything a whole lot easier. But, now that I have to succeed, it sets the bar higher for failure.”

Snotlout sits down next to me. He gingerly bumps his shoulder against mine. “You’re so dramatic,”

“Yeah. I know.”

o~o~o~o~o

I took my time getting to the arena. By the time I got to there, a large crowd had already piled in through the viewing area. I noticed that the entire thing was decorated with the Berk flags and banners and I could already hear Stoick greeting everyone and welcoming them to today’s event. “....Now, it only seems fair to past the rest of the speech onto my best friend, my second-in-command, Spitelout Jorgenson!”

The hairs on the back of my neck raise up. I meekly walk over to the side of the arena, poking my head out so see my father shaking hands with Stoick, and then standing in front of the crowd. “It pleases me today to see so many of you gather here today to celebrate the accomplishment of someone I raised and taught to be independent, strong, and confident. There aren’t enough words to describe the prideness I felt when I saw my own daughter, Hilde Jorgenson, place first in Dragon Training. There were many talented students, including my own son Snotlout and Stoick’s son Hiccup, that took part in this training and that should never go unrecognized. I’m so proud of the way Berk chooses to raise our next generation of vikings. The only thing left I can really say is...I know my wife would be very proud of our children today,”

I thickly swallow. I miss my Mom. If she was still here, she would know exactly what to say to me, to make the the clouded thoughts go away.

My father clears his throat. “So, without further ado, it is with great honor to invite my daughter to the ring!”

Cheers and roars. More than anything did I want to get a bullhorn and tell everyone to stop. Not just with the applause, but with everything else. Dragon killing and all.

I hear footsteps behind me. “Be careful with that dragon.”

Astrid.

“I’ll try to be,” I turn around, clutching my sword. “What do you think my Mom would tell me if she was here?”

“I don’t know if I can answer that question, Hilde.”

“Try.”

She bites her lip. “I...I think she would tell you to stop searching for the right signs. To go do what you think is right, even if you get hurt along the way.”

“I don’t care if I get hurt along the way,” I mutter and gaze back out to the booming crowd. “I just don’t want anything to happen to anyone else. To Toothless, to Hiccup, to you, and to all of the other innocent dragons out there.”

“You’re such a great person Hilde,” Astrid states. “But those things can happen. Only you can decide whether or not it's worth the risk.”

“Yeah…”

“Do you know what you’re going to do?”

“I—”

“Hilde!" Gobber swings around the corner. “It’s time. Knock him dead.”

I give Astrid a grim look and step into the ring, hearing the metal gate close behind me. I lightly drag my sword on the ground and allow it to pierce through the bellowing screams and chants that the vikings were making. I can hear the teen Vikings yelling my name and, when I make eye contact with my Dad, he just gives me a nod.

None of this feels right.

I walk over to the rack of weapons and pick up a shield, hoisting it through my forearm. I hold my sword up with my other hand and take a deep breath. I look over at the large, metal door that was bolted shut and wait for it to open. After a moment, the big locks on the door begin to unlock, but there wasn’t any movement….

Weird.

Suddenly, the Monstrous Nightmare bursts through the doors, coated in fiery flames. It jumps and climbs the walls as if it had mountains of pent-up energy that was just aching to be released. When it reaches to the top of the ring, it spits out a stream of fire. It catches the crowd by surprise but they dodge it just in time. The dragon climbs to the top of the metal, caged arena and the flames soon disappear from its body. The image reminds me of a large spider climbing to the top of its web...and only coming down to feast on anyone or anything that trespasses into its home.

The Monstrous Nightmare continues to spit and hiss as it climbs down and advances at me. I dart away from it, but it follows and sends another trail of flames in my direction. I hold my shield up and cover myself. This entire scenario takes me back to the last time we had a dragon invasion, when I was protecting myself from that Monstrous Nightmare…

I toss my shield aside and dart away again. The dragon runs up to me again and I stick my sword out at it and it stops approaching me...only, instead of slaying it, I drop my sword to the ground.

I protected myself that night. Now, it’s time that I try and protect this dragon.

A hush falls over the crowd above me. The Monstrous Nightmare quizzically eyes me. “It’s okay,” I whisper. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

More murmurs stretch across the crowd. Gone was that hyped-up energy. It was now replaced with confusion. A touch of anger mixed in with utter confusion.

“Hilde,” I hear my Dad command. “Pick up your sword. Now.”

I look at the Flashcut sword that laid at my feet. So does the dragon. I kick it out of the way.

Gasps ripple through the crowd. I know that there’s absolutely no going back now. But, I can’t stop thinking about Mom. I also can’t stop thinking about the nest, about Toothless, and all of the other dragons that get wrongfully hurt just because of one evil dragon.

“I-I’m sorry,” I say it more for the crowd. “But, I can’t.”

“Hilde—” Dad rises from his position.

“Just wait,” I reach my hand out and carefully step over to the Monstrous Nightmare. “I know how crazy this looks,” the dragon has calmed down a bit by now. Its large nostrils flare up as my small hand closes in on its snout. But the defensiveness was gone. “I get that this goes against everything we’ve ever believed in. But—killing dragons—it doesn’t have to be the way we continue to live. Everything that we know about these guys is wrong, and if we just open our minds—”

“STOP!!” My Dad howls. A loud clang resonates throughout the entire ring. Just as my fingers featherly touches the dragon’s snout, its eyes widen and it nearly snaps my entire arm off.

“Hilde!” Astrid cries.

I jump to the side but the dragon pounces at me again. The bond between us has shattered and, without my sword or even a shield, I was doomed. When the Monstrous Nightmare breathes fire at me, I scream. I scream my very loudest and run away from it, circling the entire arena, doing anything to avoid getting burned to death.

The Stoker class dragon continues to chase me and then, suddenly, I hear it collapsing on the ground behind me. I whip around and see Astrid on the other side of the arena, gasping for air.

She tried to help me.

The dragon notices her too and makes a dive for her. Astrid dashes away and I run, too.

“Girls!” Stoick shouts for us. “This way!”

Astrid and I turn and see that he had cranked open the gate to the arena. The dragon fires at us as we make a beeline for it. Astrid makes it but, when I get there, the Monstrous Nightmare fires again, cutting my path off. I have to turn around and run in the other direction, away from the entrance, away from safeness. I run, run, and run until the dragon has me cornered. It roughly smacks me to the ground and bounds on top of me with its claws.

Time slows down and the noise fades out. I can hear my own thoughts again.

I’m back in the position that I started out in. Now this will be the position that I die in. No one is here to save me this time. I dug myself in this hole, and now, I’m too far gone to be brought back into reality. I don’t often think about death but, with my Mom and everything, I never pictured going out in this fashion. I thought I’d make it to the day I wed, have kids, and leave a mark in my life. Create something impactful and meaningful. Not just go through the ups and downs that life throws at you. I thought that taking a stand against killing dragons would be something that helps get me there. Now, all of Berk can see me torn apart by the very thing they have fear against. After I just informed everyone that they don’t have to be afraid, my death can be the straw on the camel’s back, the thing that pushes them over the edge. They can go out and kill every single dragon known to mankind because of this and it will be because of me. 

Toothless.

No, Hiccup wouldn’t let anything happen to him. Neither would Astrid. I hope Hiccup doesn’t get too sad when I die. I hope Astrid doesn’t either. They can support each other, they’ll help each other get through it. Maybe they belong together after all. Maybe the two of them can try and fix the mess that I made. Maybe there’s hope for the future after I’m gone. 

I'm grateful that Hiccup and Toothless don't have to see my death. They don't need that. They don't deserve that. I hope they know that I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I wasn't strong enough. I'm sorry that I didn't have the power to change it all for the better. I'm sorry that I couldn't do more. I'm sorry. 

Snotlout and my Dad….nobody wants to see their own flesh and blood helplessly killed right in front of them. What a horrible way to go. I don’t want this image to be that last thing they see when I die. I don't want that burned into their brains. I don’t want them to remember me this way. No matter what, even if they hate me right now because of what I tried to do, I want them to know that I had good intentions. I never wanted to hurt anyone. I told Astrid that I didn’t care if I got hurt, and I meant that. I hope they know that I said that.

Sorry, Mom. I’ll be seeing you in Valhalla soon. Very soon.

I close my eyes and brace.

And then there was nothing. Just white.


	21. Chapter 21

*Hiccup’s POV*

I am a world-class idiot.

I can’t stop thinking, which was my exact problem at this moment. My mind was spewing thoughts out of my head, almost too fast for me to hold onto. I’m officially making the declaration that there is nothing more annoying in the world than not being able to turn off your own thoughts—they’re too loud and repetitive.

I sit down near the dirt patch at the cove. I pick up a stick and start sketching out random dragons in the dirt. Eventually, I run out of ideas, and I begin to draw random lines...and before I know it, Hilde’s face becomes apparent in the ground. I probably wasn’t even intentionally trying to draw her. In fact, I probably wasn’t drawing anything in particular and it could just be my eyes playing tricks on me.

I didn’t plan on kissing her. (Or did she kiss me? I still haven’t worked that part out yet.) There wasn’t a game plan I had visualized in my head or anything. I was used to not being seen by anybody. I was at this weird point in my life where I wanted to prove myself to others, but a part of me also accepted the fact that I was alone. I’m not scuzzy enough to woo someone over with substantial confidence. I can’t just be with someone because it’ll make me happy for the time being.

But, Hilde never makes me happy in just short doses. When she makes me laugh and smile, it stays with me. It molds inside of me and it makes my chest feel like it’s going to burst, my knees get kinda weak, and my head starts whirling. But in a good way. If I had to be incredibly honest, it did make me a little upset when she brought up Astrid the other night. I don’t really know what to make of that. Particularly, I’m not really sure what to think about with Astrid. She was someone that seemed way too out of my range, so I never really took the time to think about the possibility of us being together. Sure, I admire her strength—she’s no chopped liver. She’s beautiful, strong, caring, and it looks like she can be nice….

But, Hilde sees me. Not just the notion of me, but the layers in me. All of them. Every single one of them. Whether she likes them or not, she takes it to heart and makes you feel more than just excusable. Whenever I look at her, I know that she’s looking back at me. I see myself taking up more than just her field of vision.

Gods. Snotlout is going to kill me.

Toothless strolls over to me from behind. He cocks his head to the side when he sees my expressionless face, and makes a questioning noise at me.

“Should I have gone with her today, bud?” I extend my arm up and rub the side of his jaw. “Or do you think she would’ve told me if she wanted me there?”

Toothless shrugs. Literally shrugs. Or it could’ve been my eyes playing tricks on me, yet again.

“Yeah, I don’t know either,” the wind picks up and it sends my floppy brown hair into a tousle. “I’d like to think that she would’ve...but maybe I’m just terrible at reading people.”

Like I said, I’m a world-class idiot.

And that’s when I hear it. At first, I don’t know what I hear, but all I know is that the insides of my ears tingle from sound, and it made me shoot up straight from the ground. When I look at Toothless, his ears were perked up and his pupils expanded—he heard the sound too.

It was a scream. An ear-splitting scream.

My first thought was that it came from the woods but, when I go to check, I couldn’t detect any activity. The scream, unanticipatedly, flares up panic inside of Toothless and it sends him into a tizzy. He bolts into action, clawing and scratching at the side of the cove walls.

“Toothless!” I stride over to him. I grab him by his saddle but it doesn’t stop him. “It’s okay! It was probably just an animal!”

The dragon doesn’t listen. He begins pouncing and leaping off of each cove wall.

“We don’t know what we heard, bud!” I try again. “The noise sounded like it was too far away, in fact, it probably just came from Berk—”

I pause, halting in my footsteps. If that scream originated from Berk then that means someone is in trouble. Deep trouble.

Hilde.

The dread puddles up inside of me all at once. She was supposed to be facing off a Monstrous Nightmare right now. Something must’ve gone seriously wrong. The last time I saw her battling a Monstrous Nightmare, she hardly screamed, even when she got a sprained wrist and it had her pinned to the ground….

No. No, no, no, no.

That scream could’ve been the sound of Hilde Jorgenson’s death sentence.

I stressfully run my hands through my hair over and over again before I bring them to my temples. This isn’t how our journey is supposed to go. I kept telling her that we’d work it out, that everything would be alright. So stupid, so stupid, so stupid. It makes sense why Toothless is freaking out right now. He senses her. If this was anyone else, he might’ve been able to go on about his business.

He knows.

Screw Berk. Screw everything. Screw everyone.

“Toothless!” I pull him down from the walls once more. This time, I clamber up on top of him. He doesn’t even wait for me to guide him. Toothless soars up into the sky, jetsetting to where we need to go.

Please be alive, Hilde.

o~o~o~o~o

I see the crowd and banners when it’s within my sight, but it all looked like a mirage to me. The only thing on my mind was Hilde. When I see the Monstrous Nightmare teetering on top of something, I panic and my stomach cramps from fear. I almost felt like fainting, and I probably would’ve if Toothless didn’t wail, thus, gripping me back to my sense of reality. We sail over the crowd, and Toothless fires a hole through the caged enclosure. The fire sends billowing layers of thick smoke that scopes throughout the entire vacancy. But, that doesn’t stop us from diving right through it. When we get to the ground, I hurdle off of Toothless. I extend my hand out, reaching and grabbing for a sign of life. Anything.

Please, let there be something.

My boot kicks into something. I hear a groan and I’m collapsed on my knees. My fingers fumble through the smoke once more until I feel something warm and familiar.

It’s her.

I clutch her hand real tight. I panic when I don’t feel her squeezing my hand back. “Hilde?”

More groans.

I jerk her hand towards me, enveloping her into my embrace. “Oh, thank Thor, you’re okay!” I press my lips into her hair and hum in absolute gratefulness.

“H-Hiccup?” she croaks out. “What’s going on?”

“Toothless and I are here. Everything will be okay.”

“Everything will be okay?” She pulls back from our hug and stares wide-eyed at me. “Why are you guys here—Hiccup, you guys can’t be here!”

“I know—”

“So, then why are you here?!”

“We heard your screams! I thought you were gone, Hilde!”

“That’s no excuse!”

“That’s no excuse?” I repeat. My head was spinning in bewilderment. “You would’ve been dead if it wasn’t for us! You’re welcome for that, by the way.”

“Hiccup, where is Toothless now?”

The smoke was thinned out by now. When I twist around, I see Toothless tussling and tumbling with the Monstrous Nightmare. Growls and snap punctured through the quiet air, but only for a moment. The Viking crowd above us had grown rowdy and were dismayed by the sight before them. Hilde sits up and crawls over next to me, but her attention was on the dragon fight now. Toothless snaps, once again, and kicks the Monstrous Nightmare off of him. Toothless protectively places himself in front of Hilde and I, continuing to snap and bare his teeth at the Nightmare. Eventually, the Stoker class dragon surrenders and stalks away from the fight.

I run towards Toothless. I mount and prepare myself for a quick takeoff. “Alright, Toothless, go! Get out of here!” I keep a watchful eye on the livid crowd.

He doesn’t budge.

Hilde appears in front of Toothless. “Look, Toothless, I’m okay now! But, you have to leave or else bad things are going to happen!”

Nothing. Toothless shakes me off and I skid to the ground.

What is he doing?

The Vikings were now descending from their viewing area. Hilde and I desperately start pushing Toothless on his snout, pleading with him to get out of here. But the crowd was pouring in even more now.

“Stoick no!” Astrid hollers.

Hilde continues to shove as I turn around and I see my Dad barreling towards Toothless with an axe raised in the air.

“Dad, no! He won’t hurt you!”

“No!!” I hear Hilde call out. I turn back around again. Toothless had separated himself away from her hold, and was now kicking and tossing Viking aways from him that were trying to hurt him.

“No, don’t!” I cry. “You’re only making it worse!”

“Everyone calm down! Please!” Hilde lunges forward.

My Dad surges at Toothless, who ducks from his grasp, and they roll around for a bit.

“Toothless!” I say in alarm. “Stop!”

Toothless places himself on top of my Dad, pinning him to the ground. Toothless inhales and prepares himself for another fire blast.

“NO!” I hear Hilde and I shout at Toothless—he pauses, swallowing back the fire blast he was about use on my Dad. He turns towards Hilde and I with a questioning coo. Nobody dared to move for a moment.

Just for a moment, though.

“GET HIM!!”

The Viking crowd overpowers us. Toothless gets hit in the face with a weapon before Spitelout forcefully seizes him, grabbing him by the face and slamming into the ground, holding onto his snout.

“Dad, stop! You’re gonna hurt him!” Hilde pleads and scampers towards him. I try to go with Hilde but Astrid emerges from behind me and holds me back, rendering me unable to take even a single step further. But, it doesn’t stop me from trying and I keep my sights focused on Hilde and Toothless.

Hilde rounds herself behind her father as other Vikings pile in around her, taking down Toothless. “Dad this isn’t right! This isn’t the way it’s supposed to—”

Before she can utter another word out, or even take another breath, Spitelout had darted up and swatted his daughter away from him. Hilde falls to the ground with a jarring thud. She looks up at him in complete shock.

“Dad..?”

“Get out of my sight,” Spitelout’s voice dripped with traces of abhorrence. “You don’t belong here.”

“But, Dad—”

“Get out of my life! Now!”

Hilde falls silent. Spitelout focuses his attention back on Toothless, but Hilde doesn’t move at first—she looked paralyzed with chagrin. Eventually, she finds her way back on her two feet and rushes away from the scene, brushing her way past Astrid and I.

I grab her arm. “Hilde, I—”

“Hiccup,” she silences me, her blue eyes grieving. “Don’t. I can’t listen to you right now.”

Hilde gives me one last sad look before fleeing the scene. I make a move to follow her, but Astrid places a hand on my chest.

“Let her go,” is all she says to me. “She needs to be by herself,”

I simply nod. When I look up at her again, Snotlout had halted her in her path. His expression was laced with anger as he drags her out of the arena. I let my head fall down to my chest. When I turn around again, my Dad was glaring daggers at me.

Oh no.

o~o~o~o~o

*Hilde’s POV*

I was shoved inside the secludedness of our home before I could even think about getting a single word out to Snotlout.

This was the moment I’ve been fearing ever since I made the choice to befriend Toothless

Snotlout was already talking before he fully shut the front door. “Oh my Gods, you’ve done some pretty questionable things in your life, but I’ve never seen someone mess up this badly. This is literally one of the lowest things you’ve ever done.”

“Snotlout…” I hated the way my voice sounded like wet paper. So meek.

“Stop!” He flashes. “Do you just—do you not realize how ashamed Dad must be? I mean, Gods, I don’t think I’ve ever been so ashamed—”

“What?” Everything inside of me felt like it was shattering. “Of me? I’m not dumb, of course, I know how ashamed you and Dad are of me! I’m pretty sure I tell myself that every day, even when I start forgetting just for a little bit, I make sure to remind myself! Nothing I do ever amounts to anything!”

“Well, I apologize that whenever you walk into a room, people aren’t kissing your feet and sending praises every which way!”

“That is not what I’m saying and you know it.”

“Bogus,” Snotlout throws his hands up. “It’s exactly what you’re saying! You want everyone in this village to see you as this powerful, strong viking that you will only ever dream of! I know that you secretly idolize Astrid with the way that she can swing an axe with perfect accuracy. But, one thing that you will never realize is that life just isn’t fair sometimes. But a true viking learns to get over it!”

My hands clench and I shove him. “You DON’T get it! Hiccup and I trained that dragon, which is something nobody in this village ever had the gulls to do! Everyday, I risked my life being near an unpredictable Night Fury. But I stayed because if there was any chance at all that someone or even something would have benefitted from this then it would’ve been damn worth it! And if you and everyone else is too stupid to understand that...then maybe I should find other people that will!”

Snotlout was seething. “Well, then what’s stopping you? Go. Don’t expect me to go looking for you,” his voice had dropped to an almost gravelly tone. He turns his frame away from me and steps to the door, opening it up ajar, and then glaring back at me. “There is nothing keeping you here anymore.”

He leaves, allowing the door slam to echo behind him. I wait until I hear his footsteps trickling away before I fully allow myself to cry.


	22. Chapter 22

Tears were useless.

At least, that’s what my Dad would’ve told me...but that was before he disowned me as his daughter. I’ll never forget the look of disgust on his face when he was towering over me. I hate him. I hate him, I hate him, I hate him. I hate Snotlout, too. Yet, I still want them to like me. How come they don’t like me?

Because you make dumb decisions that put other people in danger.

But, that was never my intention. Does that make me a better person if I recognize that I messed up? There are a lot of evil people in this world that just do things to hurt people without any regard to other people’s feelings. That has to count for something. I have to keep my head leveled, and know that I wasn’t evil.

My knees were wobbling and I sink to the floor as my teardrops pitter-pattered on it. I could not breathe for the life of me—in fact, I don’t even think I was breathing anymore. I felt like a fish that was only opening and closing its mouth, but it was impossible to inhale and exhale. A weight felt like it was pulling down on my chest, dragging its way to my stomach. Also, man, I cannot stop crying. Did I mention that I can’t stop crying?

I sniff and rub my nose. I don’t even want to think about the red splotches that were now sprinkled across my pale face. I squint my eyes and allow the rest of my pool of tears to dribble down my cheeks and chin. I can’t stay in this position forever. (Even though I really wanted to. I wanted to curl up in a ball and roll around like a cat with his head stuck in a small box.) But, my Mom wouldn’t want to see me like this—I wouldn’t want her to see me like this. She would tell me to try and get up, to take things one step at a time. To breathe.

If I can accomplish the art of breathing right now, I’ll consider that one step closer to getting my act together. My head felt chilled against the wooden floor of my house and it was slowly, but surely, making the throbbing ache in the back of my skull fade away. My fingers wade across the floor, making its way to my thighs. I curl my knees up to my chest and then flex them down. I stand up, wiping my nose once more. My tears were tapped empty, but my face still felt crusty and dry from all of the crying.

Nothing I can do about it now.

I take a step to the door. I breathe, inhaling and exhaling for good measure. I then pry the door open and step out into the world.

o~o~o~o~o

The first person I run into is Fishlegs.

I spot him sitting by himself in the tinted dining hall. My stomach felt like it was gnawing itself alive but, now, I can’t tell if it’s from tension or from hunger. Nonetheless, I grab a plate of food and walk over the large table. I plunk myself down, keeping my distance away from him, and begin to quietly nibble on my food.

“Hi,” Fishlegs whispers

Well. There’s something…

“Oh...hi.” I don’t look up.

I hear the sound of a book shutting and then Fishlegs is inching his way towards me. “They’re readying the ships right now. They’re going to find the Dragon Nest.”

I scoff. Of course. Just when I think this situation can’t get any worse, it comes back to prove me wrong. “And Toothless is being brought—”

“So, he has a name,” Fishlegs comments. “Did you and Hiccup…?”

I merely shrug. “Yeah. It kinda just fit, y’know?”

“Sure,” Fishlegs mumbles.

“But they are taking him with them?” I ask again. “They must’ve figured out that only a dragon can find it. That’d be the only reason why they’re taking him.”

“Yeah, you’re right...have you seen it?”

“Seen what? The Dragon Nest?”

“Yes,”

“Oh. Yeah, I have.”

“How’d you feel?”

“I was scared out of my mind.”

“Oh…”

I sigh and decide to look at Fishlegs, not really caring how horrible I must look right now, especially after my crying fit. “You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to be nice to me just because you feel obligated to.”

“I want to, Hilde,” he assures. “If I didn’t want to, I would’ve gotten up and left. Seriously, I would’ve.”

“But I made mistakes. My Dad and Snotlout are freezing me out for good now. I’m supposed to feel bad and apologize for befriending Toothless but I can’t. I wish I could see the errors of my ways but I can’t. After everything that has happened...it makes me feel like that I’ve been swimming upstream my entire life when all I needed to do was just relax and let myself go.”

“Then don’t apologize,” Fishlegs answers. “Stay firm in your beliefs.”

“Do you believe me?”

He nervously starts to fidget and licks his lips. “I-I believe in your intentions. I know that you’d never try and do things to hurt people. It’s going to take me a while to wrap my head around the fact that dragons aren’t something to fear, but...I think you’re right. If it has to come down to it...I’ll do what I can to support you. And Hiccup.”

Pressure alleviates off of me. “Thank you, Fishlegs...I’m sorry if I haven’t been a good friend.”

He starts to laugh a little bit. “Only a good friend would apologize for not being a good friend, even when they’re at their lowest point. I think you’re off the hook.”

I grin. It makes the muscles in my face tense. “I’ve just been thinking about Berk recently...I’ve pondered over how they’d react if Toothless ever got revealed. I was thinking...maybe it’s best if I take off.”

“What?”

“It’s just something I’ve been thinking about. I just think that there’s more out there besides the seemingly set-in-their-ways motto that Berk has. I want to fight for Toothless and do what I can to save him, but after that? It might be best for everyone if I set out and explore the other worlds outside of this one.”

“W-well, what about your Dad? Snotlout?”

“My Dad would be more than happy to see me go,” I bitterly say. “And last time I checked with Snotlout, there’s nothing keeping me here anymore. His words, not mine.”

Fishlegs fiddles with fingers again. “I don’t want to sound controlling, like I don’t want to tell you what you can’t or shouldn’t do, but you should know that your friends will miss you. There’s vast grey, unknownness out there and you never know what can happen. If things get out of hand—”

“Then I come home,” I simply say. “But, I’ll never know unless I try. Training with Toothless was a leap of faith and it gave me experiences that I’ll cherish with me forever. How can I not know what I want unless I see the things that await?”

“Hilde…”

“There just—there just has to be more, Fishlegs!”

I probably sound insane right now. But I already look insane even when I’m not talking, so might as well keep talking. Plus, I’ve been shunned by the family I have left. I almost died today. My best friend is miles away from me, at seas, with a bunch of brutal Vikings that want to kill him. I’m allowed to go a little crazy right now and reach for something bigger.

I need an escape.

I huff and slouch over in my seat. “My Mom used to tell me that stars are supposed to lead you to your destiny...do you think that’s true?”

“No,” Fishlegs responds with a newfound surge of confidence. “Our ancestors, long ago, used those exact same stars to navigate their way here. The stars have already done their part, Hilde. Only you can decide who you truly are and where you want to go.”

I press my lips together, my emotions tugging at my heart. “That was...amazing, Fishlegs.Thank you so much.”

“I told you, if you ever need a friend,” he jabs a thumb toward him. “I’m your guy.”

I laugh, but I quickly die down when I see somebody else stepping inside the dining hall. The white light from the outside casts a shadowy figure onto the floors. My eyes wander up and I try to focus on who had just opened up the large doors. It takes me a good minute before I realize who was standing there.

Hiccup.


	23. Chapter 23

“Hiccup!” Fishlegs says in surprise. “What’re you doing here?”

Hiccup glances at the two of us before shaking his head. “I, uh, I came to get Fishlegs because I heard he was in here…”

“Oh,” I say quietly, “I’ll leave you two to it then.” I get up from my seat.

“No!” Hiccup sharply says. “I was going to get you too, but I thought you were at your house…”

“Oh,” I pathetically say again and rub my nose, which was no doubt still red from the crying. Gods, I must look horrible.

Fishlegs suddenly clears his throat. “Hiccup, what did you need?”

“Oh, yeah!” Hiccup looked as if he kept falling in and out of a trance. “C-could you guys come with me to the Dragon Training arena? Astrid, Snotlout, and the twins should be on their way so…”

“Uh..okay then…” Fishlegs gets out of his seat. “You coming, Hilde?”

“Yep,” I answer, keeping my head down. Fishlegs gives me a reassuring pat on the shoulder before we both head outside.

“Wait!” Hiccup suddenly speaks up. “I-I mean, Fishlegs, why don’t you go on ahead? I...need to talk to Hilde about something…”

“Oh,” Fishlegs says in a questioning tone, but then his face lights up. “Oh. Yeah, of course I’ll go,” he then leans his head down and starts to whisper towards Hiccup, but he was still talking loudly enough for me to hear. “Don’t worry, I saw what happened in the ring earlier.”

“Oh,” Hiccup mumbles.

“Hilde seemed pretty upset with you.”

“Yeah—”

“ But, I’m sure you two will work things out,”

“Well—”

“I’m rooting for you guys.”

“Thank you, Fishlegs!” Hiccup gestures to the door. “We’ll catch up with you in a few minutes.”

My cheeks flame up with a rosy tint as Fishlegs makes his way to the door and then leaves. Hiccup lets out a long exhale before he turns towards me. He opens his mouth to say something but then shuts it. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to speak first or just wait for him to say something.

“I think I should tell you—”

“I just want to say—”

We blink at each other and then laugh despite ourselves. I could already feel the warm memories rushing back to me like a tidal wave.

“Why don’t you go first this time?” Hiccup suggests with a small grin on his face.

I nod. “I just want to start off by saying how sorry I am. I shouldn’t have yelled at you. Plus, you were right, I would’ve been a goner if you hadn’t showed up when you did. So, thank you, and I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, Hilde,” Hiccup says. “It is my fault that Toothless got exposed but, you should’ve seen him, he was clawing at the walls and desperately trying to make his way out of the cove!”

“Really?” My eyes widen in shock.

“Yeah! I personally think that he would’ve found his own way out anyways, so you can’t say it’s all my fault.”

I playfully roll my eyes. “But, of course.”

Hiccup skirts his eyes to the side. “Yeah...but I also thought that—when I heard the screams and I realized that it could’ve been yours...I panicked. I really panicked and—Hilde, I thought you were gone.”

I could hear my heart beating. “Hiccup…”

“After telling you that everything would work out and that I’d wait for you after your exam was done...it would’ve really crushed me if anything terrible happened to you...” Hiccup pauses, knitting his eyebrows close together.

“Hiccup?” I ask in a hushed tone, even though I have no reason to be talking softly. “Can we talk about..y’know...the kiss?”

“Oh!” Hiccup’s face flushes. “Right. That.”

“That?” I question. “Hiccup, you make it sound like you regret it!”

“What? No, no, no! Of course I don’t regret it! Do you?”

“No!” I instantly say. “I don’t regret it at all! I just didn’t know what to make from it!”

“Me either!”

“Good, so we’re on the same page!”

Hiccup huffs and shakes his head. “Look, I-I don’t want to speak for you, but if we both don’t regret it, then it’s clear that we have a lot to talk about in terms of...us, but right now we have a Night Fury to save, so I think it’s time that we head out and we can talk after this.” He turns around and heads to the exit.

I panic and feel a tug in my stomach. “Hiccup, I’m leaving after this.”

He instantly turns around. “What?”

I wipe my hands against my sides. “After this whole thing is over with Toothless...I think I’m going to take some time away from Berk. Of course, I’m going to probably need another dragon and I’ll have to pack some of things away...but, it just feels right for me.”

“Look, let's table this discussion,” he responds. “We can talk about this more later. Let's just focus on one thing at a time. You might feel differently later.”

“No,” I say. “Hiccup, I’ve lost sight of the person I am. I don’t know what kind of person I want to be in the future, in fact, I don’t even know if there was starting line to begin with. I’m tired of not knowing. I want to make mistakes without feeling bad about it but I also want to do good things without feeling like I owe it to someone. There just has to be...more.”

“Did you feel like you owed it to me?” Hiccup slowly asks. “When you were helping me with Toothless this entire time...did you feel like you owed it to me?”

“No,” I shake my head. “I wanted to help you. I wanted to help you because I genuinely care about you.” I didn’t tell him that him and Toothless were the only things keeping me from going. If gave him that much, even an inch, it’d be enough to make me stay. But, I didn’t want to appear weak in my stature in front of him. This was something that I wanted to do, but there may still be that question if it was the right thing to do...

Hiccup nods. “Then, please, give us the chance to properly talk about this before we make rash decisions. Right now, we need to focus on Toothless.”

I only nod back in agreement. He was right. My personal issues can be saved for later. Right now, we have a dragon friend to save.

o~o~o~o~o

“If you’re planning on getting eaten, I’d definitely go with the Gronckle.” Fishlegs states.

I finish raising the metal bolt on the Monstrous Nightmare cage and turn around with Hiccup at my side. I look out and see all of the teen Vikings looking at us with wary expressions. Not that I blame them. I wasn’t even entirely sure what the plan was anyways.

Tuffnut steps forward. “You were wise to seek help from the world’s most deadly weapon,” he pauses. “It’s me.”

“Uh...” Hiccup says.

Snotlout snorts. “I want to say that I love this plan but…”

Jerkface. But I say that in my head of course. I didn’t really know if we were back to being on speaking terms.

Ruffnut gets up in Hiccup’s face. “You’re crazy!” She then leans in towards him. “I like that.”

I roll my eyes and notice Astrid catching my drift. She walks up to Ruffnut and pulls her out of the way. “So,” Astrid starts. “What is the plan?”

Hiccup looks at me and smiles. I can’t help but smile back.

o~o~o~o~o

The rest teens remained lined up behind me as I stepped inside the Monstrous Nightmare’s cage and stuck my hand out.

“Hey, do you remember me from earlier?”

The Monstrous Nightmare looks at my hand and focuses on it. I back out of the cage, keeping my hand up. The dragon follows me. I keep my sights fixated on it before I crane my head around to see which teen was at the end of the line first.

Snotlout. Of course.

But, I push my raw feelings aside for right now, chewing at the bottom of my lip in the process. I continue to back up even further until I’m right next to Snotlout. I don’t even dare to look up at him. Not even when I reach over and grab his trembling hand.

He almost jumps in surprise. “Wait! What’re you—”

I don’t respond. I feel the sweaty, warmth of his hand hovering over mine. Soon enough, his hand relaxes and he’s touching the Monstrous Nightmare. The dragon lets out a huff but it doesn’t move to attack. Snotlout lets some nervous giggles.

My hand still hasn't moved.

“Wow…” He utters. “This is— Hilde, I’m…” Snotlout’s expression stills. “...I’m sorry.”

I finally look up at him. “Wow. That’s a first.”

He gives a small smile. My hand slips out from underneath his and I walk away from him.

“Where are you going?!” Snotlout asks, clearly worried about being left alone with his hand on top of the Monstrous Nightmare’s snout.

I flash Hiccup a knowing look before I walk over to the supply box and pull out a bundle of rope. “Well, you’re going to need something to hold onto.”

“All of you will.” Hiccup adds.

I can see the rest of the teens looking at each in confusion but, when we all look up again, there were now other types of dragons standing at the center of the ring. The Sand Wraith, the Deadly Nadder, the Gronckle, the Hideous Zippleback...they were all back. But, this time, they were here for a different reason.

Hiccup walks up to me and takes the rope from me. He grabs my hand and leads me towards the crowd of dragons. “I think I already know a dragon that could be a great fit for you.”

“Horrendous, you better not have another Night Fury hidden away in one of those cages.”

“I wish,” Hiccup stops me and turns me towards a dark grey Sand Wraith with glowing, green eyes. “I read about Sand Wraith’s in one of the other dragon books and she’s really sweet...but she can also be a bit feisty. It just seems like you guys could be a good fit.”

I break out into a big, wide smile. “Well, she looks beautiful,” I stick my hand out for her. She looks at me with quizzical eyes before hesitantly sniffing my hand, and resting her snout against my hand. “I love her color...Umbra.”

“Umbra?”

“Yeah, her color is like the shadow, hence, Umbra.”

“Umbra,” Hiccup tests it out on his tongue. “I like it.”

I smile again. I tenderly move my hands from Umbra’s snout to her back. I suck in a breath and heave myself up on top of her. “Good girl.” I praise.

Hiccup passes me some of the rope. “I’ll ride with you over to the Dragon Nest. But, I’ll get everyone situated first.”

“Okay.”

I watch as Hiccup gets everyone acquainted with their respectful dragons, making sure they know what to do and how to do it. I can still feel a small spark of resistance in the air but, with time, everyone doesn’t appear as worried as they used to. Once everyone is mounted, Hiccup jogs back over to me and hoists himself over Umbra. He places his hands on my waist and I try to dismiss the small flutters in my heart and stomach.

“You good?” He asks me.

“Always. Let’s bring him back.”

I scan my eyes across all of the teens, who all look ready to fly into battle. They give me an affirming nod.

“Let’s go, Umbra.” I say to her.

We’re now soaring up into the sky. The air rushes against me and I can feel Hiccup holding onto me a little tighter. I close my eyes for a second but when I open them again, I see the rest of the teens flying next to me with a look of determination spread across their faces.

It was time to fight. For real this time.


	24. Chapter 24

I have to admit, it was hard to fly Umbra at first. I didn’t realize how accustomed I’ve become when flying Toothless—it was almost a codependent feeling. Now, all of the cues that I had to give, how light or heavy I have to be when I deliver them, it was like learning to write with my left hand when I was born to use my right.

But it wasn’t bad at all. I felt good and excited all at once to have a dragon to call my own. With Hiccup riding behind me and the sky being the bluest I’ve ever seen, this could almost be picture perfect.

Except, it wasn’t. The rest of the teen vikings were flying beside us with their own dragons and my best friend Toothless was in danger. I was happy, but I was more focused and terrified. I could feel my brain spinning, but I kept my gaze fixated straight head.

I feel Hiccup’s one hand touch my elbow. “I saw Snotlout apologizing to you,"

“Yeah. That was definitely a first.”

“Really?”

“Oh yeah. The boy once dropped a hammer on my foot and didn’t even say a single word to me. Thanks to him, I have one toe that looks pretty much deformed.”

Hiccup laughs and I can feel his chest rumbling against my back. “That’s horrible!”

“I guess it could’ve been worst. Could’ve had to lose the foot.”

“Can’t imagine living with only one foot.”

“Yeah,” I mutter. “Me neither.”

He clears his throat. “Hilde, what did he say to you after…?”

I sigh. “It was bad. He was really disappointed in me. But I fought back this time, which might’ve been a mistake because it turned into one of our worst arguments. It was just really bad.”

“I’m really sorry,” Hiccup says, tightening his arms around my waist. “If it helps, my Dad really yelled at me not long after you left with Snotlout. He told me...that I wasn’t his son.”

“He can’t mean that,” I say in a low voice. “He’s just having a hard time coming to terms with the truth. I bet once we show up and kick serious butt he’ll come around,”

“Yeah, well, I guess we’ll have to get through the kicking butt part first.”

“Right. Together?”

“Together.”

*Hiccup’s POV*

Fire.

I see the chaos unfolding right before my eyes. Smoke and fire. Scattered vikings. The Red Death dragon had finally emerged outside of its cave and was now tearing apart everything. I see my Dad and Gobber fighting it, but it’s what I couldn’t see that almost sends me in a tailspin.

Toothless was nowhere in immediate sight. My Gods…

“Fire, Umbra!” Hilde commands her dragon. Umbra lets out a roar, shoots out a ball of fire, and sends it flying over to the Red Death. An explosion erupts from behind its head, and it sends out another layer of smoke out.

“Let’s go, gang!” I tell everyone. We all go flying through the smoke, banking around the large dragon. “Ruff, Tuff, watch your backs! Move Fishlegs!” I throw out orders, allowing them to escape me as all of the action continues to develop.

“Look at us!” Tuffnut excitedly says. “We’re on a dragon! We’re on dragons, all of us!”

“Up, let’s move it!” Hilde instructs.

Hilde and I continue to lead the rest of teens away from the Red Death dragon. We huddle up, flying around each other. “Fishlegs, break it down!”

Fishlegs nods. “Heavily armored skull and tail made for bashing and crushing! Steer clear of both. Small eyes, large nostrils. Relies on hearing and smell.”

“Okay,” I reply. “Snotlout, Astrid, Fishlegs, hang in its blindspot. Make some noise, keep it confused,”

“Ruff, Tuff,” Hilde speaks up. “You guys should find out if it has a shot limit. That means you will have to make it mad.”

“That’s my specialty!” Ruffnut proudly announces.

“Since when?” Tuffnut challenges. “Everyone knows I’m more irritating! See?” He swings down his dragon and starts making annoying noises, thus, proving his point.

“Just do what she told you!” I say, agitated.

“We’ll try and get back as soon as we can! We’re going to get Toothless!” Hilde declares and, with that, she veers off into another direction.

“Don’t worry, we got it covered!” I hear Tuffnut shouting at us as we fly away from them.

I shudder, but I decide to trust his word. I don’t really have much of a choice now if Hilde and I both want to find Toothless and defeat the Red Death.

Things would be easier if I could just break a piece of myself off and keep it with everyone…

“There!” Hilde’s voice snatches me out of my thoughts. She glides Umbra down towards the burning ship, which is where I see Toothless bound and locked away in heavily chained restraints.

My heart goes thrice its rhythm as I steady myself up out of my seat. I bide my time, waiting for the right moment, and then I jump off of Umbra.

“Hiccup!” Hilde says in a startled tone.

“Go help the others!”

She pauses before turning away...and landing Umbra on the unscathed ground right next to the ship. Hilde hops off of her and dashes onto the crumbling ship, next to Toothless and I. “I’m not leaving you two here alone!”

So stubborn.

*Hilde’s POV*

I know Hiccup is kind of peeved at me but, to be honest, that was one of the least of my worries. Instead, I focus my energy on trying to get the chains loose around Toothless. I tug, pull, grunt, and sweat but it seemed like I was barely making a dent. Hiccup managed to rip the muzzle off of Toothless, but that wasn’t enough to set him free.

“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon…” I grit my teeth. The flames were beginning to get a bit overwhelming, causing my tips of my hair to singe and my skin was starting to feel like melting wax.

I feel a shadow overtaking my head and I dive straight into Hiccup. When I look up, a mast belonging to one of the nearby ships plummets down in front of us. Hiccup and I both let out a surprised noise. I feel another a shadow centering above me until, suddenly, I’m jerked backwards by the back of my clothes. My arms and legs flail out in front of me and then my body is tossed onto the shoreline, feeling the immense heat escaping out of me. I look behind me and see Umbra standing directly behind me with her nose nudging against me as if she was checking my breathing. When I look in front of me, the inflamed ship had sunken deep into the water...taking Toothless and Hiccup down with it.

And I could’ve been gone with them too if it hadn’t been for Umbra—she saved me.

“Thanks, girl…” I praise Umbra for saving me, but Hiccup and Toothless also needed saving too. I take a step forward to dive into the water until something pulls me backwards. I turn around to, this time, scold Umbra for trying to intervene with again but I am instead met with a large, beefy man.

Stoick.

“You stay here,” he orders me. “I’ve got this.”

He then springs inside the water without another word.

*Astrid’s POV*

Fishlegs, Snotlout, and I were desperately trying to keep the Red Death dragon occupied. We all clang our weapons together against the monster’s face and, thankfully, its eyes were notably spinning in confusion.

“It’s working!” Snotlout happily says.

“Yeah! It’s working!” Fishlegs agrees.

I open my mouth to say something but I stop when I feel my dragon swaying around beneath me. I could feel myself losing control.

The realization hits me. “Guys! The noise is also confusing our own dragons!”

But it was too late. The Red Death dragon flails and thrashes Snotlout and I off of our dragons. We both go sailing and land on the monster’s head. I scream as I start sliding, my shield falling away from me in the process, but I stop just before I can fall of towards the edge.

Close call.

Fishlegs starts shouting at us. “Snotlout, Astrid! Do something!” He throws us his hammer, which I catch with my one hand. Fishlegs hurls down to the ground, so I know that he can no longer help us.

That just leaves Snotlout and I together. Great.

I study the hammer in my hands before Snotlout roughly grabs it away from me.

“Hey!” I protest.

“I have an idea!” Snotlout proceeds to whack the large eyes of the dragon, one by one. “What’s wrong buddy, got something in your eye?”

I find myself grinning. “Yeah! You’re the Viking!” I take out my own axe and start doing the same with his other eyes. Snotlout stares at me with a smile on his face. “Keep going, Snotlout!” He snaps out of his trance and then goes about his business, continuing to hammer the eyes.

A moment passes before he speaks up. “It’s a good sign that my little sister is taking a long time to get back, right? I mean, I’m worried about Hiccup too obviously...but do you think Hilde is okay?”

I try to push that thought aside because if I start dwelling on it, then it’ll literally cease me from functioning right. Also, I’m scared that my answer will be far more worse than the deafening silence that I decide to respond with.

*Hilde’s POV*

It feels like an entire lifetime has passed before he emerges again with Hiccup in his arms. Stoick gasps for air and sets Hiccup aside me. Hiccup lets out a cough and Stoick swifty turns around again and lunges back inside the murky water.

“Dad..?” Hiccup chokes out. His entire body was drenched.

“Hiccup,” I rush to his side and place a hand on his back, easing him up from the ground. “Talk to me. Are you okay?”

“Toothless?” He asks.

“I…” I’m at a loss for words. “He’s not here...your Dad is back in the water though.”

“What?” He crouches forward. “My Dad..?”

As if on cue, the water spurts and explodes before us with Toothless bursting out with Stoick clutched on his claws. Toothless sets him down next to Hiccup, Umbra, and I before landing on a large rock in front of us. He shakes the water off of him and turns his green eyes at us. Toothless screeches and nods his head towards the Red Death, as if he was verbally telling us, let’s go.

Hiccup is dazed by the course of events that have just transpired, but a smile soon breaks out on to his face. “You got it, bud.” He climbs on top of Toothless.

I turn towards Umbra, who already has her wings readily spread out. “C’mon, girl.” I mount on top of her. Once that’s done, we trot over next to Hiccup and Toothless.

“You good?” He asks me.

“I’m good.”

Hiccup and I prepare to take off on our rightful dragons.

“Wait!” Stoick rushes over to us and grabs Hiccup by the arm. “Hiccup, I’m sorry...for everything.”

“Yeah...me too.” Hiccup responds.

“You don’t have to go up there.”

“We’re Vikings. It’s an occupational hazard.”

I chuckle. Hiccup and Stoick smile at one another.

“I’m proud to call you my son.” Stoick informs him.

Hiccup’s smile grows bigger, evidently touched by the words. “Thanks, Dad.”

My heart grows heavy. It almost makes me emotional to witness this exchange between father and son. When Hiccup turns back to me, I beam at him, hoping he understood the heft behind this interaction.

Hiccup and I prepare ourselves once again and then we finally take off together.


	25. Chapter 25

*Astrid’s POV*

“They’re up!” I announce as I watch Umbra and Toothless shoot up into the sky.

“Yes!” Snotlout punches his one fist into the air. He catches my gaze and notices the two dark dragons in the sky and looks pleased.

I’m glad that they made it out of there, too. I had a feeling that they would, but it’s always good when the good scenarios that you play out in your head actually happen.

Snotlout and I both get distracted by Hilde and Hiccup making it out, that we both stop hitting the Red Death dragon with our weapons. We also don’t notice the dragon furiously shaking its head, which then leads to us being tossed back and forth. My axe gets knocked away from me and I’m thrown to the other side of the head again except, this time, I fall off. My one hand shoots out and I grasp onto one of the spines belonging to the gigantic dragon, clinging for my dear life.

“Snotlout!” I cry. “Where are you?”

“I got thrown off too! I’m hanging on at the other side!” He answers.

“Okay!” I dart my eyes around, fiercely looking for something, anything, that will get us both out of this predicament. When I see Tuffnut and Ruffnut flying around nearby, I wave my one free hand in the air. “Ruff, Tuff! Get us out of here!” 

“I’m on it! I’m on it!” They both respond at the same time. Ruff and Tuff then both start to bicker about who’s “on it first” and my temper flares.

“Just do it!” I scream, feeling my grip getting looser by the minute.

The arguing dies down and the twins finally steer their dragons in our direction. I boost myself up, sliding down the head of the dragon. I look over and see Snotlout catching my drift, dashing across the head like me. We both run up to the edge and, the second the twins fly up close enough, I jump and land right on top of the necks of the Hideous Zippleback. I straddle myself around the two-headed dragon but, when I turn around to check in on Snotlout, he was nowhere in sight. Just then, I hear his screams echoing in my ear and, when I survey my surroundings, Snotlout was descending down, falling almost a hundred feet in the air.

My heart drops. “Snotlout!”

He must’ve just missed the landing. Was it my fault? Did I accidentally push him out of the way while we both jumped off?

I feel something whooshing past me and, the next thing I know, a dark grey dragon had swooped in and caught Snotlout in the air by its claws.

Hilde.

*Hilde’s POV*

I could hear my brother’s screams even from where I was at. I instantly speed forward, rushing past Hiccup. I arch my back, and narrow my eyes in determination. I see Snotlout falling and my actions start to speak for itself—I accelerate up and catch him in Umbra’s claws.

“You alright down there?” I ask.

“Oh, I’m just fine!” He returns. “Having the time of my life!”

I roll my eyes and drop him on the ground, next to the other vikings. I then pounce away, angling myself back towards Hiccup. I see him appearing in the distance, so Umbra and I start flying, passing by the Red Death dragon’s mouth along the way. I don’t feel anything at first, but I see its mouth gaping wide open and then the wind starts to pick up. The air intensifies, Umbra’s wings can’t flap anymore, and I’m slipping off of her.

“Hilde!” I somehow manage to hear Snotlout’s fantic calls. “Get out of there!”

The suctioning was getting worse. The Red Death dragon was inhaling even more and I was barely outside of the mouth at this point. My legs have officially gone out and it was as if I was lying down at this point, and the only keeping me from falling inside the large was me holding onto Umbra…

I have to let go. My fingers unhook themselves from her and now I’m officially getting sucked inside a whirlwind. My one arm remains up as if it was trying to grasp hold of something, the logical part of my brain still wanting to fight for a way to save myself. But there was nothing I could do about it now. My one foot was already knocking itself against one of the sharp teeth and it already felt like a part of it was ripping through my boots.

Then a large, ball of heat gets thrown in my direction. A spark explodes in the air and I’m broken free from the winded restraints. Umbra falls away from me, the explosion restricting her to fly towards me. My body flies through the air, spinning to the ground— it looked like it was getting closer and closer. I open my mouth to scream but, before I can do that, my one leg gets caught in the air and I’m not freefalling anymore.

“Did you get her?” Hiccup asks.

Toothless bends his head down and looks at me with his cat-like eyes. He happily grunts when he sees me safe and sound.

“Thanks, Horrendous!” I call out.

Hiccup flies us down to the where I dropped Snotlout off mere moments ago, and releases me. As soon as my feet are firmly planted on the ground, Hiccup and Toothless flutter away, back to where the Red Death dragon still stood, spitting fire in every direction.

I bound over to the swarm of vikings, trying to find where Umbra went so that I could fly back up again and help Hiccup.

Snotlout comes up to me and grabs me by my triceps, his eyes scanning me up and down as if he was searching for critical injuries. “Are you okay? Did you get hurt?”

“I’m fine—”

“Do you need me to take you to Gothi right now?”

“No, I don’t need you to do anything for me right now. I have to find Umbra.”

“Your dragon?”

I nod.

“Why?” He questions.

“I have to help Hiccup and Toothless.”

“Uh-uh,” Snotlout shakes his head. “Absolutely not.”

“I wasn’t asking for permission,” I brush past him and start hurriedly walking away, heading deeper inside the crowd of vikings. I can feel Snotlout following close behind me, but I didn’t care—my mind was made up.

“Look,” Snotlout says. “You don’t have to do anything.”

I don’t answer.

He groans. “You just almost got eaten by a crazy, bloodthirsty dragon and you’re seriously trying to fly back up there? To help Hiccup? Because, somehow, the Night Fury isn’t enough help for him? Are you for real?”

“Yes!” I snip and turn around to face him. “Who are you to judge me? Don’t think I haven’t forgotten all of the things that you said to me. Don’t think that a single sorry changes anything. You didn’t give a single care about me before and you made it perfectly obvious earlier today, so what’re you so concerned about right now? Why does it make any difference for you if I do anything—”

“Because I can’t lose you too!” Snotlout practically shakes me.

What?

He lowers his head down, his breathing becoming jagged, and keeps his hands on my arms. Snotlout pulls me a little closer to him as if he needed a gentle reminder that I was still here. “I can’t...when I saw you getting sucked inside that dragon’s mouth—I didn’t think I could feel any worse when Mom died...but, then I almost lost you too.”

I stop moving. My body stiffens and I can’t remember any words. I used to dismiss all of his actions as meaningless and this entire time...my older brother felt this weight that he carried around everywhere that he went. I knew that losing Mom took a toll on him—it took a toll on all of us. But, I guess I got caught up in my own feelings and I just saw Snotlout’s actions and words as they were. I never took the time to translate them.

I’m an idiot.

“Snotlout…I’m so, so sorry.”

“Me too. I really am. So, so sorry.”

It’s quiet now. I pull him closer and let him fall into me. He shouldn’t have to feel that constant burden all of the time. Not without sharing it.

“Hilde?” I hear Astrid’s voice.

Snotlout and I separate from our embrace. My head cocks over to Astrid and I hm in response.

“Come with me,” Astrid grabs my hands and directs me away from the crowd. Snotlout follows. When we’re further away, I see Umbra standing with Fishlegs, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut. “We found her like this.”

I jog over to her side. “What’s wrong?”

“It looks like the blast from Toothless damaged a part of her wing,” Fishlegs shows me a chunk of her wing that looked blackened and crisp from a fire explosion. “I think she’ll be okay, but it’s pretty sore on her.”

I draw in a long breath. “So, flying…?”

“Flying right now is definitely not a good idea,” Fishlegs advises. “But I’m sure once we get her back to the village, she’ll be flying again in no time.”

I peer over at Snotlout before answering. “Okay. I won’t fly her right now. I’ll stay down here with you guys.”

*Hiccup’s POV*

“That thing has wings!” I note. “Okay, let’s see if he can use them!” Toothless and I were elevating up to the sky, but I turn him around. We both race down, going nearly as fast as a bullet fired from a gun. As we approach the ground, Toothless levels off, but remains going at top-speed. He shoots a fireball at the Red Death dragon and it hits it straight in the head. The dragon fall to its side with a thud, dust and debris overtaking the environment.

I hope nobody got hurt.

“Do you think that did it?” I ask Toothless, twisting around in my seat. The monstrous dragon had lifted itself off of the ground and was now furiously flapping its winging with a snarled expression on its face. “Well, he can fly…”

The dragon roars in my face. Toothless and I zip around through a maze of sea stacks, the Red Death dragon snapping at our tails, but it couldn’t reach us. We skim past the crowd of vikings and a part of me wants to look over to find Hilde, but the sound of the large monster breaking through each sea stack as if they were nothing interrupts me.

My eyes roll up to the sky and I see a throng of dark clouds taking up the sky.

Perfect.

“Okay, Toothless. Time to disappear!” We pull up and head towards the clouds. The monster follows us in hot pursuit. “Here it comes!”

Whoosh.

Flames beckon behind us, but Toothless and I have already disappeared inside the clouds. The Red Death had entered inside it as well. It flies around, moving its head around in search of us, but we were nowhere in immediate sight. The monster growls.

This is it.

Toothless and I dive at the dragon. Toothless ignites fireball, after fireball at the monster. Each shot purposely hits it in the wings, piercing it and puncturing it.

A down dragon is a dead dragon.

Toothless and I make sure to stay out of range, so the Red Death doesn’t try and shoot at us. Each time we fire at it, we make sure to swifty move around at almost a blur. Frustrated, the monsters starts blindly spilling out columns and columns of flame, lighting up the entire sky.

“Watch out!” I warn Toothless. A flame had fallen over, burning his prosthetic fin in the process. “Okay, time’s up. Let’s see if this works.” We turn around and rush over to the monster’s face to taunt it. “C’mon! Is that the best you can do?!”

Toothless roars.

We dodge the Red Death’s snaps and speed back down to the ground. Predictably, it follows us. But with the prosthetic fin badly damaged, it made it harder for Toothless to go faster.

I wish Hilde was here.

Scratch that. I’m glad she isn’t here. I didn’t need her getting hurt right now. Not now, not ever. This was my battle to fight. I started it, now I have to finish this.

I glance back at the burning tail. “Stay with me buddy,” I whisper at Toothless. “We’re good. Just a little bit longer.”

The Red Death was gaining on us. I can feel it getting closer and closer to us, its mouth opening up for a loud blast.

“Hold, Toothless,” I close my eyes in preparation. “NOW!”

Toothless and I flip around and, without a moment to spare, we blast out our final fireball, sending it spiraling inside of the monster’s mouth. The fireball mingles with the gas, thus, causing a catastrophic chain of explosions to erupt inside of the Red Death. As we continue to fly down, the monster continues to follow us, but there is a flicker of pause when it sees the ground approaching faster than it anticipated. The monster tries to flap its wings in order to save itself but they were damaged and no longer good. Toothless and I pull away, flying over the Red Death’s head, as it smashes into the ground, exploding into nothing but a great mass of flames and smoke.

Everything in the atmosphere tightened and vibrated. Toothless and I race back up, climbing up the remaining lower half of the Red Death. Flames from the explosion chase after us, but everything looks clear up ahead for us.

Until…

The dragon’s large tail starts to come down on us.

“No...no…” I try to tug and maneuver Toothless out of the way, but the bulky tail hits me right in the face before I can rack through my brain for other options.

I’m falling. I feel myself slipping into unconsciousness and my entire body was getting hotter.

So hot.

My eyes finally shut and all I can see is Hilde’s face…she’s so beautiful.

And then everything goes numb.


	26. Chapter 26

*Hilde’s POV*

White.

It was the only thing I could see in front of me. The explosion sent everyone ducking for cover but, once I resurfaced, it was as if I was on a whole new planet.

“Hiccup? Hiccup? Hiccup?! Son?! ” Stoick’s voice cuts through.

My hand brushes across the ground and I gasp—there was so much scorching heat that surrounded us. I stand as the atmosphere vividly clears up. I can see my friends and brother standing around me, but they were all faced away in a particular direction. I get a horrible feeling in my gut and scamper to the crowd, bumping my way to the front. I see Snotlout, Dad, and Astrid standing next to each other with sunken shoulders. My breathing hitches when I go to stand next to them, my heart splintering at the sight before me.

Toothless was lying down at the ground. I could see his eyes marginally peeled open, but Hiccup was nowhere in sight. Based on everyone’s grieving expressions, and with Stoick knelt down in front of the Night Fury, I knew that meant Hiccup was gone.

Hiccup was gone…

My eyes instantly well up and I sob. I put my hands over my mouth and mournfully weep. My legs wobble and I feel myself getting pressed inside someone’s chest.

Dad.

“Shhh…” Dad hushes me with a light pat on my shoulder. “I’m here.”

The quiver in his voice makes me cry even harder. Every single thing is starting to become a reminder that Hiccup is gone. He’s not coming back. I’ll never get the chance to laugh, joke, tell each other how much we care about the other…

This isn’t how things are supposed to go.

“Hiccup!” Stoick says in surprisement.

My breathing halts. I pull away from Dad, catching sight of Stoick cradling an unconscious Hiccup in his arms.

Could it be?

Stoick lifts Hiccup’s chest up to his ears, listening for a heartbeat. A moment or two passes before he lets out a relieved laugh. “He’s alive! You brought him back!”

I gape, allowing the last of my stray tears to meaninglessly fall to the ground. I let out a huge smile as the rest of the crowd cheers and roars in happiness. I turn towards the rest of the teen vikings and we all embrace in a group hug.

Thank the Gods.

I hug Fishlegs. I hug Astrid. I hug Ruff and Tuff. I hug Snotlout. I hug everyone I can. This was the biggest relief I’ve ever felt in such a long time. I even see Snotlout wiping away a small tear. This was truly a moment that deserved to be celebrated.

The teens and I rush up to Stoick, who was still holding Hiccup in his arms. “Thank you,” we hear him saying to Toothless. “For saving my son.”

Gobber follows behind us and surveys Hiccup and down. “Well, you know...most of him.”

I gasp when I notice what he’s referring to.

*Hiccup’s POV*

My head hurts so much but that doesn’t stop my eyes from fluttering open.

“Rise and shine, Horrendous…” A soft voice speaks to me.

“Hilde,” I breathlessly say. My eyes fully open up, focusing on her. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

Toothless hovers over me, nuzzling and licking my face. “Hey, Toothless,” I greet. “I’m happy to see you too, bud. Now just—”

His one foot inadvertently pushes down on my groin and I yelp in pain.

“Toothless!” Hilde says in shock. “Give him some space, geez!” She places her hand behind my back and helps me sit up from my bed. “How..how are you feeling?”

“A bit sore…” I finally begin to take in my surroundings. “Wait...I’m in my house?”

“Well, yeah.” Hilde answers.

“Toothless is in my house?” I emphasize.

“Well, yeah,” Hilde repeats with a small grin. “Poor bud didn’t want to leave your side.”

“How long was I out?”

“A few days.”

Suddenly, Toothless starts to jump and prance around the room, knocking things over. Hilde lets out a laugh, but I begin to get a little apprehensive. “Uh...does my Dad know you’re in here?!”

Hilde turns to answer me but she’s interrupted by Toothless lunging up on to one of the high ledges in my home.

“Okay, okay—no, Toothless! Aw, c’mon…” I shift to get out of bed, but...something felt wrong. I wiggle around a little bit more until I throw the covers off of me.

The sight overwhelms me. I look at Hilde and her smile has dropped, knowing that all of the laughs were over. She doesn’t say anything to me but I know that that’s because she’s waiting for me to work through my thought process first. She doesn't want to intrude.

I swing my legs over the bed. I place my booted foot onto the ground...followed by my own metal prosthetic foot.

I let out a shaky breath. “D-did..did Gobber...?”

“Yes,” Hilde quietly answers. “Made it with the best material that he had. I tried to help a little...but I guess I should stick with rings for now.”

My hands hurriedly fly around my neck and I gasp when I don’t feel it.

“Don’t worry,” she reaches inside her pouch and pulls out the ring-necklace she made for me. “It made it out. I only took it from you to clean and polish it,” She drapes it over my head. “There. Much better.”

Much better…

Toothless lands beside us, his energy simmering down. He carefully sniffs my prosthetic leg and raises his eyes to stare at me. I let out another breath as I stand up to lean against my bed post. The newfound weight painfully strains on my leg and it causes me to wince.

I press my lips together into a hard, thin line before taking a step. “Okay, okay…” I take a step forward and my knees buckle, giving out on me. I stumble, but Toothless catches me with his head, supporting me upright. Hilde had tried to reach her arms out to grab me but Toothless had gotten to me first—he must’ve noticed this because he then shoves me off, sending me towards Hilde’s direction.

She makes a surprised noise but catches me in her arms. Hilde nervously chuckles, blushing. “Heh..”

Can’t say that I don't find myself smiling by default. “Thanks for catching me.”

She simply shrugs. “What’re friends for?”

“Just friends?”

Hilde looks at me with wide eyes, pausing before answering. “I’m leaving, Hiccup.”

“Oh…” I turn away, wishing I had the power to stand up on my own. “You still want to leave? At a time like this?”

“It would probably make things easier if I left as soon as I can. But I wanted to make sure you were awake first. I’ve already packed up some things and Umbra is all set to fly…”

“Who else knows that you’re leaving?”

“Fishlegs,” she responds. “And Astrid. They actually both helped me pack. Tuff and Ruff found out…”

“Snotlout?”

“No...I left a note for my family. There’s just never been a right time...it’s not like I’m going away forever, Hiccup.”

“It will feel like it,” I mutter.

“I can take care of myself.”

“I know you can. You just never know what can happen...Hilde, you have to promise me that you’ll come back if you find yourself in trouble. I don’t care how bad it gets because I swear to the Gods if I catch wind that you’re even in the slightest bit of danger, Toothless and I will search every single island until we find you and bring you back home.”

“I promise,” Hilde brings me closer to her. “You’re too good, Hiccup. Just so you know, I don’t consider you just a friend.”

“Well, what does that make us?”

“It makes us people who need to figure out our priorities,” she faintly grins. “We’re not committed to anything right now. We’ll...take some time away so we can make decisions with a clear head. Deal?”

“Deal.”

Hilde stablizies me once more. I snake my arm around her waist and lean on her. We both make our way to the door, taking things one step at a time.

One step at a time.

When we reach the door, I go to pry it open, but I’m then face-to-face with a Monstrous Nightmare snapping in my face. I yelp for the second time, slamming the door shut. “Guys? Stay here.”

“Hiccup, it’s okay!” Hilde reassures me. 

“What—”

She opens the door, allowing it to swing open. We both walk outside and I see the Monstrous Nightmare again...but it has Snotlout on its back.

“C’mon guys, get ready! Hold on tight! Here we go!” He shouts at the horde of dragon riders following behind him.

When I look around some more, I see vikings and dragons walking around together. No one was shouting and everyone was just going about their business. Each dragon was supplying things to vikings, and vica versa. They were all either strolling along or people were actually flying them...it’s like dragons and vikings were actually coexisting together.

“I knew it. I’m dead.” I declare.

“No, but you gave it your best shot,” Dad walks up to me and swings his arm around me. “So? What do you think?”

I can’t form words. Even if I tried, I didn’t have time to. Suddenly, a crowd of vikings gathered around me, praising, asking how I was doing, and that it was good to see me up and about. Hilde takes this opportunity to slink away from me. She weaves through the crowd of vikings, heading in the direction of her home. I know that she’s getting ready to go. Hilde is probably going to grab her things and then, soon, she’ll be flying away on Umbra. She wouldn’t come back to say an official goodbye, knowing it’d be a little bit more painful if she did. I won’t see her again until...Odin knows when.

My eyes fall on Snotlout, who was happily milling around and going about his business. He had no clue that he was going to return home soon and find that his sister has left him. The sister that he tried to reconcile with, the one that he yelled at and it’ll be one of the last tainted memories that he’ll have with her. For once, I actually feel sorry for him.

And now I’m about to hate myself for what I’m about to do next.

*Hilde’s POV*

The afternoon was already slowly drifting away. I had just enough light out to fly around in and, hopefully, have somewhere to spend the night in before dusk breaks out.

I sigh and shift my large, clothed bag across my torso. Umbra was already saddled and ready to go as I lead her out to one of the cliffs that hung over the shimmering ocean.

“C’mon, Umbra,” I say to her. “Let’s go before someone notices.”

“Too late.”

Drat.

Umbra gives a questioning coo as we both turn around and see Snotlout and Hiccup staring at the two of us.

Hiccup gives me an apologetic look. “I’m sorry I had to tell him.”

I sigh, not really feeling that angry. Almost okay with it actually. “Eh, it’s fine. I’m really not that surprised.”

“Yeah, and it doesn’t make any sense to me,” Snotlout marches up to me with his eyebrows pulled together. “I don’t get why you’re still leaving. Isn’t this what you and Hiccup wanted? We’ve made peace with the dragons, they live here now. They’re our family now, Hilde, and you...well, you know what I mean.”

“Snotlout, it isn't just about that anymore. I mean, this whole thing turned out great, this is the best I could’ve ever hoped for. But I’ve realized something after a while, and I’ve always felt out of place here. There’s a part of me that I still have to figure out and...I want to explore on my own while I still have the chance. I won’t be gone forever, I’ll come back—”

“If you come back,” Snotlout corrects me. “This is stupid—”

“This is what I want,” I sigh. “Don’t worry, at least I won’t be around to pester and annoy you anymore. You don’t have to worry about me because I have Umbra and she’ll look after me.” I stroke Umbra’s ears in endearment.

“Look, I get that I’m a muttonhead sometimes—okay, fine. I’m a muttonhead all of the time. But, I was hoping that now...maybe I can get better. After everything we’ve been through, for a split second I thought I lost you...I guess even after losing Mom I never considered that I could lose you, too...yeah, I’m definitely the biggest muttonhead you’ll ever come across.”

I let go of Umbra, walk forward, and hug him. “Yeah...but you’re my muttonhead.”

Snotlout hugs me back, giving me a small squeeze. He knows that the decision has already been made. He waits until we both pull back before he says anything else. “So, you’re really leaving, huh.”

“Yep. And I don’t know when I’m coming back.”

Snotlout awkwardly laughs. “Okay, well you better get on with it. Those undiscovered gems out there won’t wait around forever.”

I childishly stick my tongue out at him before mounting on Umbra, adjusting my bag behind me. “Catch you on the flip side, Snotface.”

“Get out of my face, princess.” He smiles.

Hiccup limps over to me, still getting used to his peg leg. “Good luck.”

“You too.”

“I...I hope we cross paths in the skies soon.”

“I hope so, too.”

And, just like that, I’m gone. But as I ride off into the fiery pink skies of Berk, I couldn’t control the smile that kept breaking out on to my face. We will cross paths again.

I know we will.


End file.
